Rippled Dimensions
by Izzu
Summary: Kamen Rider Decade. AU. Before it all started, before the journey ever begins... strange happenings had started happening in the original Rider worlds. Once again the nine Kamen Riders have to again take upon their Rider lives in order to save their world
1. Chapter 1: Wataru's unease

az: Had suddenly this muse of what probably could have happened in the time prior to Decade's from the side of the Original Rider worlds. What started as mere musings lead to making an actual series of one shots about it. AU considering we might or might not be given some plot regarding this in the second movie.

* * *

Rippled Dimensions

Chapter 1: Wataru's unease

By honou-no-izumi alias Izzu

o

o

A shiver suddenly ran up his back as Wataru felt uneasy. What was this sudden feeling of dread? Another enemy? Aside from those Neo-fangires that his future son had warned them about? But they had already defeated those enemies! What kind of new battle that he would have to face this time? Would his battles ever end? Must he have to fight new enemies until the last of his breath? And what new enemy would he have to fight this time?

"Wataru, is something wrong?" Shizuka suddenly asked as Megumi's attention suddenly turned towards him. Wataru blinked.

He and Shizuka were supposed to be helping out at the Café mald'amour today, since Shima-san, Master and Nago-san had some errands to do today. And here he had been spacing out doing nothing...

"Err... nothing! Excuse me..." cried Wataru as he left whatever he had been doing and staggered towards the back door.

To his surprise, he was suddenly standing at Castle Doran as he looked around, clueless. Wataru sighed. Jiro-san should stop whisking him back to the castle unannounced like this!

"Wataru."

Wataru turned at once to start giving Jiro a scolding before stopping himself as he saw his serious face. Wataru suddenly became wary.

"What is it?" he asked.

"There had been a new door."

Wataru was frowning now. The only other door that did not lead to any rooms in this castle had been the time door. What of this new one?

Ramon, Riki and Tatsulot had been hovering in front of this new door as Wataru and Jiro reached them. Kivat the third came out from behind Wataru as he also eyed the door curiously.

"No one had been able to open this door, niichan!" Ramon suddenly spoke before turning towards them, as if Wataru and Jiro had never left their sides. Wataru felt that feeling again. Did this door appeared the very same moment he had these strange feelings?

Wataru slowly lift his hand to touch the doorknob as immediately the door opened and pulled him in...

xxx

Wataru blinked as he was now back at the city but somehow the city felt different. A scream suddenly filled the air as Wataru turned around, to see Lion Fangire chasing a woman. Lion Fangire? Rook? Hadn't Rook been destroyed by Megumi-san not so long ago?

Wataru darted towards them as he called for Kivat. But he suddenly froze as he overheard their conversation.

"You have violated the law for taking the lives of normal humans! By our King's orders you shall be punished!" the Lion Fangire suddenly spoke. Wataru gasped. What was happening right here?

The woman suddenly revealed herself as another Fangire before exclaiming aloud. "Humans had always been our food before the previous King decreed it not! What's the reasoning for that? I shall not obey this stupid rule!"

"Then you shall die!" said the Lion Fangire as the woman was executed.

Wataru stared in disbelief as he witnessed the scene.

"What is this? What's going on right here?"

"The worlds are changing..."

Wataru turned around as his father walked towards him, but that was impossible! His father was dead!

Kurenai Otoya smiled at him.

"Don't be so surprised. This is not the same world we used to live in."

Wataru frowned. And what did his father just said?

_Worlds?_

Otoya just shrugged. "Perhaps you could understand it better if you see this." he said again as Otoya flicked his finger.

Suddenly a strange apparation wall appeared and went through them as they were now transported into another place. His house. But this was not his house! Because he would never leave this place in such abandoned state...

"What's this?" Wataru started to say as Otoya told him to keep quiet. Not long after, he heard a familiar tune being played... just that this one sounded as if the player had only started learning the melody. Wataru turned his attention towards the sound as he saw a small boy struggling to play the tune. The boy sighed as he stared at a small picture frame nearby. Straining his neck to look, Wataru could barely see a picture of a woman playing the violin inside that frame.

"Mother... I can't do this. I could never play this tune properly..." the boy said to the picture frame sadly.

Wataru stared back towards his father in surprise. "Who was that?" he exclaimed, because that for sure was not him!

Otoya shrugged at him. "The boy's name was Wataru. Just Wataru."

Wataru stared at him in disbelief as Otoya grinned at him.

"Hadn't I said so? This is not our world. The worlds' order had started to fall apart. Ours and many more, this was just the beginning..." said Otoya again as the apparation wall appeared again to ran them over.

xxx

Wataru blinked as he find himself back at the city, though he was not sure if he was still in that other world or his own. He looked around to find himself alone. Could it be a dream? But he was still awake.

"Wataru!"

Wataru turned to find his half-brother staring at him in alarm.

"Wataru... what's going on right now?" Taiga said again as he held his hand towards him. Taiga's hand had suddenly become transparent before turning solid again. Wataru gave a cry.

"Strange things had started happening around here!" Taiga exclaimed as Wataru saw his three Arms Monsters running towards him.

"Niichan! Where have you gone to?" Ramon had shouted before the three stopped beside them as Jiro eyed him in concern.

"Wataru, is there something wrong? What happened after you entered that door?" he asked as Wataru blinked.

Suddenly the area had become night as Taiga, Jiro, Riki and Ramon disappeared. The only one standing before him was his father, hovering in front of him like the spirit he was.

"It had started. Go find that person, it's the only way you can stop this..."

Wataru blinked again as he was back in his own reality. Taiga and the Arms Monsters had been staring at him, waiting for his answer. They started talking again when he did not, but somehow Wataru tuned all of their voices out. The only voice that kept resounding in his ears had been of his father. Urging him to find the person who could put an end to all of this.

_"Find him. Find the Destroyer of the Kamen Riders. Find the one who called himself Decade..."_

"Decade..." Wataru suddenly spoke the name out, softly. To no one in particular.

Immediately images of eight more Kamen Riders appeared in his mind as Wataru pondered over his father's words...


	2. Chapter 2: Ryoutaro's shock

az: I'm assuming the Original Den-O world and the Den-O world in Decade being the same world in this piece. So, considering not much about Onigashima that I can dig, I guess I'll do my own speculations here. And some scenes I am being quite vague. I guess that's a leeway I'm giving so that any speculations about how certain things happen can still be up to debate.

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Rippled Dimensions

Chapter 2: Ryoutaro's Shock

By honou-no-izumi alias Izzu

o

o

"Ryotaro! Take care when you go out!" cried Airi as Ryoutaro nodded automatically before getting out of Milk Dipper cafe.

He sighed as he took his bike out and cycled out. He had told his sister that he was heading out for some air, but somehow Ryotaro did not think any extra air going to do him any good at the moment. He had just received a call from Kohana. Yuuto had suddenly disappeared and Deneb had went off by himself on Zeroliner to go search for him.

It was not like it had been the first time Yuuto had disappeared without knowledge. But the fact that even Deneb did not know where he had gone, that worried him. Yuuto almost never gone anywhere without telling Deneb or without the imagin joining him. And somehow the strange air that he had been sensing lately, worried him. As if it was a sign telling him something bad going to happen soon. Though, Ryoutaro could be at least be hopeful. Deneb still remembered Yuuto so that should mean that Yuuto was still alive. And no other changes had happened to Kohana, or so she said at the phone; Ryoutaro could be assured that what ever was the reason of his disappearance... it was not of something that would permanently affect Yuuto's existence as well as those related to him. Ryoutaro could never imagine what her sister's life would become in the future should anything happen to Yuuto.

Ryoutaro's stopped cycling as he saw a Mole Imagin attacking people at a park. He darted towards the place as he called the name of his partner out.

"Momotaros, let's go!" he cried as Ryoutaro transformed into Kamen Rider Den-O Sword form.

Den-O sneaked up towards the Mole and was about to give the Imagin one of his trademark attacks before another Mole Imagin appeared behind him in an ambush. Both Ryoutaro and Momotaros gave a loud cry before the impact of the attack threw them off towards the ditch...

xxx

Kotaro glanced out towards the window as he watched his grandfather sitting idle outside, looking at the sky. Perhaps he had been reminiscing again about his good old days. Despite those _good old days_ had also included a _lot_ of ridiculous bad lucks. Kotaro could not count how many times his grand-aunt Airi had recalled about the silly things that used to happen when his grandfather had been young. He would not have believed it if he had not seen it himself by his own eyes.

Kotaro snickered to himself as he turned away from the window to see Teddy setting up the dining table. His mother came out right behind him as she set the tray of food on the table. Kotaro glanced towards the clock on the wall. Ah! It was already past the usual time when they had lunch together.

"Kotaro-kun... call your grandfather inside. It's already time for lunch." his mother said as Kotaro walked out of the house to call on his grandfather.

But strangely as he went outside, his grandfather was nowhere to be found!

Kotarou blinked as he looked around the area. His grandfather could not just disappear without a trace like this. He had just saw him a few minutes ago!

Suddenly right before his eyes, a faraway skyscraper disintegrated into nothing as it was replaced by a smaller building. And another building also shared the earlier building's fate as the area that once stood an elite business complex now become just a bare land. Kotaru immediately rushed back in to drag Teddy out, to the surprise of his mother.

Kotaro pulled out his pass as he waited for Neo Denliner to arrive to pick him up...

xxx

"Kotaro!"

"Hana-san... where's grand—I mean, Ryoutaro-san?" cried Kotaro as soon as Teddy and him managed to catch up to Den-Liner and board it.

"Hey, boy..." Urataros greeted him as Kintaros and Ryuutaros waved at him.

Kotaro shrugged at them before turning back towards Kohana as he waited for her to answer. Teddy had been nudging him to calm down as Kotaro bit his lips.

"Grandfather suddenly disappeared in my time and buildings in my time had also started to rapid—"

"Calm down, Kotaro... err, kun. You'll probably need to sit down for this."

Kotaro frowned as that voice had not come from Kohana, who had given him a serious look; but behind him. He turned around in surprise as a young boy looked up towards him, unsmiling.

"So... here I am. Kotaro... kun." the boy said as Kotaro staggered towards a nearby seat in surprise.

xxx

"I can't believe what I'm seeing..." Kotaro exclaimed as Ryoutaro fidgeted on his seat uncomfortably.

"You'll get used to it. I was as surprised last time when Hana-san had turned into Kohana-chan. It just didn't struck me to have to have this experience happening to myself! _Just how far my bad luck would go now..._" said Ryoutaro in disdain as he murmured his last few words.

Kotaro looked at him in concern.

"What happened?"

Ryoutaro shrugged.

"I had intended to go investigate about Yuuto's disappearance. And then I saw a Mole Imagin. It had bothered me... how many of those had created a lot of trouble in the past. I hadn't expected to be ambushed from behind."

Ryoutaro wet his lips restlessly before sighing.

"When I came to, I'm already like this. That time, I had thought nothing about Momotaros's disappearance... but when I returned here—"

"We told him Momo-chan hadn't come back." Ryuutaros cut in as the purple imagin hopped to sit beside Ryoutaro. Ryoutaro shrugged him off when Ryuuta started shooting at him with his bubble gun.

Ryoutaro sighed. "So much had happened in such short time. I wonder what I should do."

"Ryoutaro, don't push yourself too hard. You know that we're always here to help you." Kohana started to say before Urataros cut her off.

"Yeah and not having Senpai around for a while, kinda fun for a bit. We get to have some extra space after such a long ti—oof!" Urataros doubled over as Kohana elbowed him too hard.

Ryoutaro sighed.

"Now there's too much mystery for us to handle. Yuuto's disappearance, Momotaros's unknown fate... and these rapid changes to the city as well as the sightings of Mole Imagins creating trouble! How on earth we gonna get to the bottom of all of this!"

Kintaros stood up suddenly.

"Ryou-noji. You and Kotaro should go look for Yuuto. The rest of us should be able to handle the things here."

"But Kintaros—"

"Kin-chan is right, Ryoutaro." Urataros chipped in. "You shouldn't forget that we had our own passes now. Courtesy of that incident with Shiro and his ghost train. We should be able to handle any trouble should one started."

Ryoutaro still unconvinced. "I'd feel bad to leave all of the works to all of you. And nee-chan should be very worried about me right now. It's been days since..."

"I'll talk to Airi-san." Kohana spoke again. "And Ryoutaro... you might as well find out something behind all of these strange happenings while you search for Yuuto. Don't worry about us, we'll be fine."

Ryoutaro tried to counter her argument before Owner started to speak.

"Hana is right, Ryoutaro." he drawled. "There are times I think you should agree that having more people to help you undertake many tasks at hand to be useful. This, being such time. I should believe that every incidents that were happening to be connected at some point. You should be able to take on that task to find out about the greater scheme of things while the rest of us tackle the lesser problems."

Having been told off like that, Ryoutaro could not help but realize that what Owner and everyone had said might hold some truth. Everything had started with Yuuto being missing after all. Perhaps he could as well find out what was behind the reappearance of so many Imagins and why they started rampaging. He might also find out who was behind the chaos this time. Not to mention restoring himself to normal.

Ryoutaro looked up towards all of them before nodding his head towards them. Kotaro smiled weakly at him as he reached out to hold his hand.

"We'll get to the bottom of this."

Ryoutaro returned the weak smile before turning towards the others. "You guys take care of yourselves as well." he said in finality as he rose to join Kotaro and Teddy inside Neo Denliner. After watching Neo Denliner leave, Kohana and the Taros started discussing their plans in action regarding the search for Momotaros's whereabouts as well as the Mole Imagins activities.

It was weeks later when the Taros started to hear about a new rider called Decade that was rumored to be the Destroyer of Kamen Riders.


	3. Chapter 3: Tendou's worries

az: Hahahaha, finally finished this one. It got twice longer than the previous two chapters. But I guess it's because of Tendou and I needed to set the settings properly for this one. Compared to Kiva and Den-O so far, Kabuto needed even more explaining to do... to explain some stuffs.

Fixed some hole on the plotflow.

* * *

Rippled Dimensions

Chapter 3: Tendou's worries

By Izzu alias honou-no-izumi

o

o

Tendou Souji walked out of the lobby of Narita Airport as he took in a long breath of air. It has been a while. Two years since he had left this place for France. Two years since he had been fighting for the fate of humanity as well as the world. He had wanted to return home sooner, meeting Juka and Hiyori again and rub to Kagami's face of the fact he had grown successful in France as a chef in one of the well known restaurants in Paris while he had remained a simple policeman in a small district.

He had never wanted to come back home like this.

A week ago he had called home and heard of a surprising news. Kagami had been hospitalised after an incident. Juka had not mentioned much but it seemed that that was all to it. She said Kagami insisted that it had been just a normal day to day incident and for some reason Tendou was not buying it.

A lot of times Kagami had said something was fine, most of the time it was not so. And Tendou believed that this time it was the same.

xxx

The doorbell rang as Kagami opened the door in greeting. The moment he saw who his visitor was, he sighed before letting him in.

"So who's been ratting on me?" he said as Tendou took a seat at a couch nearby.

"No one. I heard from Juka that you got into an accident." said Tendou as Kagami shrugged.

He just shook his left arm that was still on a sling before pouring himself a cup of tea before Tendou brushed him off to do the task. He poured himself tea as Kagami sat at a couch across of him.

"I'm fine. It's a bit hard to do some certain things at the moment but I'll manage. If you've talked to Juka-chan, you should have known that it's not such a big incident."

Tendou shrugged.

"She told me, I just didn't believe it. When it comes to you, I trusted my instincts more than what people said. And my gut feelings told me that this isn't just some minor accident."

Kagami rolled his eyes at him before sipping his tea.

"You and your high-handed personality. The world would still go on even without you watching over it all the time, you know? I could take care of myself just fine."

Tendou raised his brow.

"Kagami, you can quit side-tracking me. I might be just following my feelings when I had booked that flight from Paris to see you here, but now I'm sure. That wasn't an injury that you can get from such a small _accident_." Tendou said again as he cocked his nose towards Kagami.

Tendou felt his irritation went up a notch. Who did Kagami want to kid with his condition right now? Aside from that arm of his on that sling and the scratches on his face, he could barely notice the bandages that had been hidden just underneath his slightly unbuttoned shirt. That should not come for a mere fall or whatever trash he told others to fool them. The last time he had seen Kagami with these kinds of injuries would be during the times when Worms had been active and him still working under ZECT. Kagami was always prone to injuries in those times.

Kagami fidgeted uncomfortably, having been placed under such scrutiny. He sighed before easing his shoulders that had been tense since Tendou had arrived at his doors.

"I had not wanted to worry you... just yet. It might have been nothing, just perhaps some of those little things that had slipped us last time. I don't think it was such a big deal yet to have to call you back."

Tendou frowned.

"What had actually happened to you? No, tell me what is going on here first." he asked as Kagami gave him a weak smile.

Kagami shrugged. "Well, this had started about two weeks ago. I had been doing my rounds at the neighbourhood as usual when someone suddenly ran amok and since that time, those school kids had been coming home from school... well, I had to try to not let any harm to fall on the kids. And then later, I realized that this wasn't just any _normal _man going amok on the streets."

Tendou nodded at him as he waited for Kagami to continue. The situation must have been more serious than what he had been hearing so far, since Kagami had assumed his serious demeanor. No matter how much he had failed on that.

"Tendou... it's a Native. The man that had been running amok at that time had been a Native. I'm not sure what really happened but later after some questioning the man said that he had no idea what he was doing. It's like something unknown had been causing him to go crazy just like an average Worm. There's some other minor incidents after that, another Native attacking another Native. Some more Natives showing signs of having bouts of unexplained craziness, some Worm attacks that had suddenly appearing at some place. Despite I thought, we've already taken care the most of them last time. And no, Hiyori was still fine... I supposed you've headed right away to my place before checking up on your sisters?" said Kagami as Tendou let out a sigh of relief.

"My father reasoned that the new appearances of those Worms, had been from _that_ time. Some people might have already been turned by those Native necklaces without anyone knowing. But I don't buy that fully. Since why would they start causing trouble only now after so long being in hiding?"

Tendou shrugged. Those reasoning made some sense.

"Who else knew about this?" he asked as Kagami shrugged.

"My father, Tadokoro-san, Misaki-san, Renge... Kazama Daisuke. We managed to contact some of the former ZECTroopers to help out on controlling the situation. But we only have two Riders right now... so—" Kagami lifted his left arm on the sling to make a point as he added, "I heard some of the troopers telling me that they saw Yaguruma-san fighting some Worms last week."

He shrugged again.

"The situation is still minimal so far, I contemplated to call you about it but I thought better not to worry you just yet."

"Oh! And when would _that_ be? When you're already stuck in the hospital ward and bandaged all over?" Tendou said sarcastically as Kagami rolled his eyes again at him.

"I've been careless at that time! There was a kid that time when a Worm had attacked. During the fight the Worm had sent a fireball towards a nearby building. I hadn't given it much thought and just lunged to save the boy. The troopers said that Kick Hopper had finished off that Worm but I can't say much about that. I've been knocked out by that big slab of cement and brick, and broke my arm in the process. But at least the kid's safe."

Tendou snorted despite himself. Trust Kagami to prioritise others safety first than his own.

"Well... at least I'm here now, you won't have to rack your brains over it much. I'll take over the job now."

Kagami snorted, trust Tendou to say that. Now, those grandma quotes should come out _just_ about...

Tendou leered at him. "Why are you looking at me like that? My grandmother said that—"

Kagami snickered.

"Yeah, yeah... I know. Whatever that is you wanted to say." said Kagami, still grinning at him. "And I'm glad to see you again, Tendou."

Tendou smiled. "Yeah, it's been a while..."

xxx

Tendou pulled out a small case from his top cabinet as he placed it on top of his table. He opened it as he stared at the rider belt that had been with him for such a long time. To think there would come a time for him to don that rider armor again...

He heard shuffling sounds behind him as Juka cried aloud.

"It _is _YOU! Welcome home, oniichan!" the girl cried as Tendou turned around just in time to catch Juka, who had jumped into his embrace.

He laughed. "I missed you too. How's school?"

"School's fine, like it wouldn't be all the time. Why didn't you call to tell us you're coming home? I might have cooked something extra this morning!" Juka complained as Tendou set her on her feet.

"Better like that. The food would definitely gets cold later. After all, I planned to cook dinner for tonight. You like that, wouldn't you?"

Juka grinned at him as she darted out of the room. Not long after, she popped her head back inside.

"Have you gone to see Hiyori-neechan? She'd be glad to know you're back."

"She's still at the La Salle?" he asked as she nodded.

"Hiyori-neechan had been busy. She had started serving a new set menu last week and the bistro had never stopped being busy. Hiyori-neechan had gotten even better at her menu making. Yumiko-san had even told her that she could have started her own restaurant now with her skills but neechan didn't want to. Again."

Tendou smiled fondly.

"Um no... I haven't yet pay a visit to the Bistro. I've been at Kagami's place since I've arrived here."

Juka's eyes brightened at the mention of Kagami's name. Tendou almost forgot that Juka had been fond of him since she had first met him.

"How's Kagami-san now? I haven't been visiting these few days... he told me that he could take care of himself just fine. But I only wanted to make sure he's eating properly!"

Tendou grinned. "Don't worry about him. I've made sure he would. Now go change out of your uniform. You _are_ still working part time at La Salle, aren't you?"

"I thought you never ask." said Juka as she dashed towards her own room.

xxx

Hiyori smiled to her customers as she placed their dishes on the table. She turned around to find Juka grinning at her. She folded her arm at her as she pursed her lips at her.

"You're late. Have you been taken a leaf out of Kagami's old habits today?" she scolded her as Juka continued grinning.

"Look who's back!" said Juka cheerfully as Tendou made his appearance. Hiyori smiled widely as she gave him a hug. Yumiko rushed out of the kitchen to give him a greeting.

"So what did you want to eat?" Hiyori asked, still smiling.

Tendou smirked. "Whatever new menu you've created since I last stepped into this place. But before that... I'd like your good old mackerel miso." he said as Hiyori gave him a knowing smile.

"As you wish." she said before tapping her chin, suddenly remembering something. "Talking about mackerel miso, Kagami should be visiting right about now. But I'm not seeing him right now..."

Tendou smirked again. "You can stop worrying about him now. He's nicely resting himself at home, I've prepared him enough food to keep him fed for the day until night. So you needn't worry about saving him some of your delightful miso."

Hiyori rolled her eyes at him before heading back towards the kitchen, muttering under her breath about how Tendou often get to eat her miso whenever she had been preparing it specifically for Kagami. Juka joined her as she started telling her about the things their brother had been doing since returning home.

The small bell rang again as Renge Takatori stepped into the bistro. She immediately walked towards Hiyori, just as Hiyori had done serving Tendou his miso.

"Renge-san! I've been waiting for you." Hiyori exclaimed. "Or are you going to start ditching your work today?"

"Today's an exception, Hiyori-san. Something came up today, I promise I'll come to work early tomorrow." Renge explained apologetically before looking around frantically. "Did senpai came here today?" she asked.

Hiyori shook her head.

"Not today." she said cocking her head towards Tendou. "Someone had insisted for him to stay at home the whole day..."

"Yo!" Tendou greeted her as Renge's eyes brightened.

"Master! It's been a long time!" Renge cried as she sat opposite him. "How are you?" she asked as Tendou resumed eating his miso.

"What was it that you wanted to see Kagami for?" Tendou asked as Renge fidgeted uncomfortably. Tendou raised his eyebrow in exasperation. "I've already heard about everything from Kagami this morning. You can tell me everything to me what you've wanted to tell him."

Renge gave him a surprised look before sighing. "There had been another incident earlier. Misaki-san and Kazama-san had been on to it. But one of the Worms had got away and they were on its pursuit the last I heard. Misaki-san told me to keep senpai up-to-date on the case. And there's another thing... Tadokoro-san had been feeling unwell lately—"

Todokoro chewed the last portion of his mackerel irritably. "Kagami is still recuperating and you guys still kept him working? Don't tell me that was the reason that he's having a slow recovery?"

Renge started to raise her voice before remembering her place. "We can't help it! The incidents involving Worms and Natives had started to increase—" she hissed, "—and we haven't enough Riders or men to tackle the situation. Even if we had just got a new candidate to use The Bee, it's still not enough. We're still understaffed."

"And we're unsure as to allow the still remaining Natives to use Sasword or any other Rider system, because of the strange disease that had suddenly appeared. And senpai had insisted that we did not keep anything about this from him, despite his injuries."

Tendou could see that Renge had been feeling rather remorsefuly, having to confess to him the actual situation they had been facing. He started feeling bad at himself for scolding her harshly, but then he was still not regretting the fact he had been scolding Kagami as harshly that morning for neglecting his own well-being. He shook the thought away. Renge mentioning the strange bout of craziness among some of the Natives as _diseases_ worried him. What if Hiyori get the same thing that had been infecting these Natives?

Tendou placed the empty dishes aside as he rose.

"Take me to where Misaki and the others are. I'll help you guys out."

Renge frowned. "Are you sure, master? You've just came back... I can't possibly have you—"

"By the sound of what you've just told me, it's already getting worse. Kagami would have started to call me back here anyway."

Renge nodded as she rose to join Tendou and lead him towards the place. Tendou told Juka and Hiyori he would be seeing them again later as they walked out of La Salle Bistro.

xxx

Tendou watched silently as some of the trooper had taken away the sedated Native into the ambulance. He turned his attention towards Drake and The Bee's new user as they fought another group of Worms. Strange... he cannot imagine there were still a lot of these Worms lurking around. He started to understand Kagami's concern. Even if there were survivors during the purge, two years ago; there should not be this much Worm to have managed to slip pass them. Of course, they could have had a secret nest to increase their numbers but to have remained undetected for so long? That was strange.

Tendou put on his Rider belt as he watched Drake faltering in his attacks and The Bee getting outnumbered. He raised his arm as he called on his Kabuto zecter after such a long time. He stepped forward as he transformed; managed to get some of the weaker Worms as he cast the outer armor off. Kabuto wordlessly summoned the Hyper Zecter before attaching it at the side of his belt.

"Hyper clock up." Tendou spoke calmly as he slapped on the zecter.

Immediately, everything slowed down as he easily destroyed all of the Worms that had been outnumbering Drake and The Bee. Tendou shrugged to himself at the sheer easiness of the fight. But before time return to its proper speed, Tendou suddenly got pulled into another dimension.

xxx

Tendou blinked as he took a glance around him. This was not the same place he had been thrown into when Hiyori and the mimic that had taken his appearance had lived in. This place looked like some of those abandoned factories he used to go to. Why on earth would he ended up over...

Suddenly a wall near him exploded as two people had crashed into the hallway in front of him. Tendou froze as he saw a Worm and... himself? Fighting each other with both being evenly matched. As Tendou watched them fight, both of them had been thrown away from each other as Kabuto's armor become undone. And Tendou watched in surprise to find the Kabuto user not being him.

Before he could make any sense over what he had been seeing, his Hyper Clock Up ended as he returned back to the old mill compound where he and Renge had caught up with Misaki's squad. He undid his armor as Daisuke walked up towards him.

"Hey, thanks for the backup. Haven't expected you to be here this soon." the make-up artist greeted him. Tendou returned the greet unenthusiastically as his thoughts hovered back to the things he had earlier seen.

Who was that man donning the Kabuto armor? What did that scene he saw meant? Was it some kind of alternate world? An alternate dimension?

Tendou Souji pursed his lips in frustration. No matter what answer he was looking for, he doubt that he would get his answers any time soon...

xxx

Sou Yaguruma slipped back into the shadows as he acknowledged the return of Kabuto. Meaning that he would not have to be so chivalrious any more to help those people with the Worms problem unless he himself had been attacked personally. Going back to acting like his old self had been a bit refreshing but that had been because Kageyama was no longer by his side. It was as if he had another reason to start moving on with his life again, instead of hovering off without direction. But that was not important.

Aside from that, a part of him had been bothered by the fact the Worms were returning and there were not enough Riders to fight them.

But considering Tendou Souji had returned, he probably could return to his darkness again, embracing the shadows...

"You looked well..._ aniki._ It's been a long time."

Yaguruma turned towards the voice cautiously to see Kageyama leaning idly beside a tree stump. He frowned.

"It's me, aniki. You're not halucinating... and I'm no worm either."

Yaguruma still eyed him distrustfully as Kageyama stretched his legs.

"It's amazing how a rip in dimension can cause worlds to destabilize. Even allowing the dead another chance at life. But that's another kind of darkness. I see Aniki had embraced the light again."

It had seemed surreal, but hearing Kageyama spoke to him with authority made him want to laugh. It would be another lifetime altogether before Kageyama ever having a higher authority than him. He spat.

"When ever _had_ I return to the world of light? I'm just finishing off the lot of those lowly Worms again, seeing they're up and about again. And what's this rip in dimension you were talking about?"

"Another shadow is approaching this world at rapid speed. Another darkness."

Yaguruma cast a fleeting glance towards Tendou's shadow before smirking. That bastard would probably end up finding out about this later. No, he would definitely gonna do something about it.

"Like I cared. They all looked the same to me. Light or darkness."

He started walking off further before pausing.

"What are you waiting there for? Let's go... _aibou._"

Kageyama just smiled as he walked quickly to catch up to him.

xxx

Hiyori cast a wry look at Tendou as she gathered her dirty plates to take to the kitchen.

"I thought you said you've made enough food to last Kagami the whole day?"

Tendou shrugged innocently as Hiyori left for the kitchen, while Kagami cast his eyes at him in amusement.

"I had to agree with Hiyori as well. Why did you call me to come here for dinner at the last minute, anyway? The food you've prepared for me earlier could as well last me until tomorrow's morning. I had to keep the rest of them in the fridge!"

"Why not?" Juka chipped into the conversation as she finished the rest of her tofu. "It's been a long time since we had dinner together after all. How's your arm, Kagami-san?"

Kagami shrugged. "It's getting better. Don't you worry your head about it. I'm just keeping it on a sling because moving my arm so often would still hurt. And I rather keep any movements using my left arm to the minimal."

"I'm glad to hear that!" said Juka as she also gathered her dirty dishes to wash at the kitchen.

Kagami turned his attention towards Tendou as he spoke softly.

"So what did you want to see me about?" he asked.

Tendou sighed. "I've finally understood your concerns. The situation does appear to be bad. Also, I had been seeing some certain... _stuffs_. These strange incidents might have been even worse that what we originally thought. I worry if these incidents continued to get even worse than they are right now."

Kagami turned his attention towards Hiyori as he nodded in understanding.

"I hope it won't get any worse too..."


	4. Chapter 4: Hibiki's concerns

az: Ended up taking a while to write this one up, need to do data research on the Oni and Makamou since Wiki is SO NOT a good source. Okay... got, just things like some of the plot points aren't there and I still ended up having to rewatch the series. (Not that I don't like it XD) And I'm playing with a certain plot point that had been hovering in my head ever since I first started watching Hibiki.

Another long chapter. I hope I won't disappoint anyone. It's hard to write this chapter and make up my mind on how certain plot should go. Probably would expand this chapter in a different story some day.

* * *

Rippled Dimensions

Chapter 4: Hibiki's concern

By honou-no-izumi alias Izzu

o

o

Hakone, Kanagawa.

At a village nearby, Adachi Asumu smiled to himself. Akira sat beside him as she followed his line of sight towards the villagers who were still busy working the paddy fields.

"It's so peaceful, isn't it?" she said casually as Asumu shrugged.

Akira glanced towards him.

"What're you doing here? Missing Mochida-san?" she teased as Asumu gave her a surprised cry.

"Err yeah, I mean... no! I mean... aaaargh! Akira-san!" cried Asumu as she laughed. Asumu sighed before glancing back towards the fields.

"I'm just daydreaming. There's isn't much work to do today anyway."

Akira grinned. "I noticed. The villagers seemed to get better after all. Still, this was something. Normal youngsters like us would have spent their holidays having fun. But you—"

Asumu coughed. "I can spend my days however I liked, thank you. You _know _that I am serious about becoming a doctor. I didn't ask you to join me here."

Akira leered back towards Asumu.

"I can say the same myself. Besides... I don't have any plans to do during the holidays. And cheering up sick children had been fun." said Akira before adding an afterthought. "Aside from that, I can watch over you here for Hitomi-chan."

Asumu blushed.

"Enough about teasing me, would you?" he cried aloud, snickering before shrugging. "Wonder how the others were doing right now. It's been a while since we had last seen Hibiki-san and the others..."

Asumu let his word hover in the air as he thought of Hibiki and the people at Tachibana's. Akira sighed.

"They should be all right, silly. It's not like they wouldn't survive a day without us visiting them every week." said Akira as Asumu grinned at her. Noticing that their lunch break was almost over, both of them started towards the clinic as a loud crash resounded behind them. Asumu and Akira turned around in surprise to find an Oni fighting a Bakegani. The Oni turned towards them as he cried out to tell them to evacuate the villagers quickly. Akira perked up as she recognized the Oni as Danki.

"Come on!" Akira said as Asumu and her ran off in a hurry to lead the rest of the villagers to safety. When they got back, they finally saw Shoki aiding Danki with the Bakegani as the Makamou was destroyed. But before either of them could let out a sigh of relief, another Bakegani appeared as well as a Kappa with their respective hime and douji accompanying. Both Akira and Asumu stared at the scene in shock.

"A kappa during this time? What's going on?" Akira cried as they watched helplessly at the sidelines. Another Oni, Eiki-san; appeared to help Danki and Shoki to fight off the Makamou. Eiki managed to destroy one Douji as Danki jumped aback, trying to avoid the Kappa's attack. The Kappa started making copies of itself as he groaned.

"Damned... it's not like I'm getting any younger over here." he cried as he destroyed one of the kappa's duplicates. He turned towards them as he noticed Asumu and Akira nearby.

"Has everyone been evacuated?"

Akira nodded. "We believed so... and I've called for help. Hibiki-san and Ibuki-san were the closest but we're not sure if they would come any sooner."

Danki nodded as he turned his attention towards the rest of the Makamou. Eiki managed to destroy the original Kappa as the copies followed with it. He joined Danki in confronting the Bakegani's Douji as Shoki was occupied in fighting the two Hime. But during the fight, Danki was caught by the Bakegani's claw as he was thrown towards a shed. To Asumu's alarm as well as Akira, they could see a small boy crouching behind the shed; not far from where Danki had crashed. Both of them hurried towards the shed, while avoiding the attacks from the Makamou, Douji and the two Hime.

Asumu rushed towards Danki as Akira reached towards the small boy before noticing that Danki had been hurt badly. He was barely conscious as Asumu frowned, glancing towards the direction of Eiki and Shoki. They really needed to get Danki-san and the boy out of the danger. And quick.

They were sitting ducks here if that Bakegani turned towards them. Seeing how Eiki and Shoki being outnumbered at the moment, he doubted they could come to their aid quick enough.

"Hibiki-san... Ibuki-san, please get here sooner!" Asumu whispered under his breath as he knelt down to pick up Danki's Henshin Onsa before proceeding to help Danki get out of the rubble. Just at that moment, the Bakegani had crashed towards the tree nearest to them as it turned its attention towards the two if them.

Akira looked up in alarm as the Bakegani's giant claw was about to slam onto Asumu and Danki...

xxx

"Danki!" Shoki cried out, just as he managed to nick one of the Hime and hurriedly destroyed her with his Ongeki. He turned towards the direction of the Bakegani just as a bright light shone on top of the rubble.

Akira opened her eyes slowly as she saw an Oni blocking the Bakegani's claw with his left arm before hitting it hard with one of his Ongekibo. Akira frowned; the Oni did not look like Danki-san. Sure enough, Danki was still lying on the ground; his injuries no worse than he already has. She gasped at another realization of the identity of this new Oni.

"Asumu?" she whispered in surprise as the Oni delivered another blow towards the claw; with Eiki managing to get to their aid fast enough to distract the creature away from the four.

Asumu turned towards Akira.

"Get them out to safety!" he said before turning towards Danki, who was now conscious enough to be at least aware of his surroundings. Asumu picked up Danki's other Ongekibo on the ground as he helped him towards Akira. "I'm borrowing your drum sticks for a while, Danki-san. Please get to a safe place for now." he said again as Danki nodded towards him barely.

"Be careful, Asumu." Akira reminded him as Asumu headed towards the other two Oni.

Taking a closer look, Asumu finally realized what was it that had been troubling him. The Bakegani might have looked like a normal Bakegani he used to see Hibiki fought last time but this one seemed wilder. As if there was some kind of force making it go wild. A troubling thought crossed his mind; it couldn't be another Orochi about to come? But Hibiki-san had put a stop to it for a while, few years ago!

Shoki defeated the other Hime as he reached Asumu's side.

"You're that boy who often hang around with Hibiki-san, is it?" Shoki asked nonchalantly as Asumu told him yes. He nodded as he nudged Asumu to head towards the Bakegani's other side.

"Since you becoming an Oni was unexpected, you follow my actions okay. You should remember how Hibiki-san had fought Makamou, right?"

"Yes. I still remembered."

"Good, then get ready to move after this." Shoki said as he shot the Bakegani with his Ongekikan. Asumu ran towards the Bakegani as he hit the Bakegani's front legs hard. Eiki had helped as well from the other side when the last Douji had steered away from him, causing the Bakegani to topple on its back. The Bakegani's Douji started distracting Eiki from attacking the Bakegani again as Eiki pursued the Douji.

"Asumu-kun! Now!" cried Shoki as Asumu jumped on top of the Bakegani's belly before placing the Ongekiko on the belly. Asumu took a long breath as he steeled himself to deliver the blow.

Shoki put his Ongekimei back to his Ongekikan to from a complete trumpet before looking towards Asumu's direction as the young lad gave a loud cry.

"Ongeki da! Kaen Renda no Kata!" he cried as he started drumming, almost at the same time Shoki had started his own Ongeki. Eiki had also finally caught up with the Douji as he hits it with his Hissatsu Hitchu form. The three sounds continued to resonate as both Bakegani and Douji exploded into many pieces.

Seeing that the fight had finished finally, Akira and Danki called out towards them as the three walked up to see them. Eiki turned around as he noticed Hibiki and Ibuki finally arrive at the entrance of the village. He smiled.

"You guys were late. We ended up finishing up the mess by ourselves while waiting."

Hibiki and Ibuki just shrugged before hurrying up to greet the others. Asumu turned to face Hibiki before shrugging at him as Hibiki cast him a questioning look.

xxx

"So, _that's_ where both of you had been these few months..." said Hibiki casually as he sat beside Asumu.

Asumu shrugged.

"Well... I've heard there was a request from the clinic at that village asking if the hospital could send a doctor there to help with a strange illness that had hit the village. A doctor at the hospital had asked if I'd like to come with him to gain some experience so I accepted the offer."

Hibiki frowned.

"Is it so? Sorry if you had to cut your stay there short."

"Don't worry, Hibiki-san. Our term breaks are almost over after all, we would have came home around this time also if this incident had not happen. And Asumu-kun certainly is not too unhappy to get back here sooner." Akira explained as Hibiki appeared relieved. Asumu elbowed her as she grinned.

Ibuki eyed Akira before shrugging to himself.

"So how are _you_ now?" he asked Akira as she shrugged.

"It's not so bad. My psychology studies are also going well. What about you, Ibuki-san?" she asked as Ibuki fidgeted saying that he was coping well also.

Hibiki laughed.

"Don't worry about him. Nowadays, Kasumi had always—" Hibiki paused as the doctor finally walked out of the room.

"How's Danki-san, Doctor?" Asumu started to ask as the doctor smiled.

"He's fine. His injuries weren't so bad. He'd be able to get back on his feet in no time."

The four of them was relieved as they entered the ward to see Danki. Said man greeted them cheerfully as Hibiki grinned.

"It seemed it going to take a lot more than this to bring you down."

Danki laughed aloud.

"Hah... you're jesting, Hibiki-san. You're older than me and you're still active-working."

Hibiki gave him his usual salute as he shrugged.

"It's because I'm always trained. I was surprised to see you getting yourself beaten up so much."

"We _had _been fighting a lot more Makamou before that actually. It was only those two Makamou that had managed to escape towards that village. Enough about me... it seemed you had another good disciple, Hibiki-san." he said before turning towards Asumu.

"You had fought well this afternoon..."

Asumu coughed as Hibiki gave him a curious look.

"Ah... that's nothing special. You were hurt... and Akira-san and that small boy was there, I was holding the Henshin Onsa..."

Asumu shrugged. "I haven't been thinking when I had transformed. The only thing on my mind had been Danki-san being hurt, the Bakegani, that small kid—Oh, Akira-san! What about that kid?" he suddenly burst aloud as Akira smiled.

"Don't worry... when you had been occupied, I've found the boy's parents. That boy's safe."

"And Asumu had always been my disciple, Danki. Long before Kiriya-kun came along. Even though he won't become an oni, he'd still be my disciple." said Hibiki as he patted Asumu's back with pride.

"Sure fooled me. You should have seen him fight, Hibiki-san! He's a natural..." said Danki as Asumu coughed uncomfortably.

"Anyway, Hibiki-san—" said Asumu again as he tried to change the topic. "We noticed that the Makamou had been behaving strangely."

"Unn," Akira added. "A Kappa had appeared." she said as Hibiki and Ibuki turned towards Danki to reaffirm it. Danki nodded.

"There had been more Makamou that Eiki, Shoki and I had fought earlier aside from those two Bakegani and Kappa. There were others, giant Makamou and summer Makamou alike; half of them weren't even local to that mountainous area near the village. Something strange is happening here, Hibiki-san." said Danki in a very worried tone.

Hibiki and Ibuki remained quiet as both felt the same. A premonition on something far worse than either they or others in the past had ever faced. Or ever would.

xxx

Tachibana Ichiro was in deep thought as Hibiki and Ibuki finished retelling about the incident in Hokane.

"Eiki and Shoki had continued on a lookout over there but so far it seemed everything was under control. For now. Another thing that was bothering me was what Asumu had mentioned."

Tachibana nodded.

"I get what you're telling me. I guess it was expected for someone like Asumu to notice. We often overlooked things that we used to do all the time after all. Come to think about it, Ishiwari had recently called me telling the same thing."

"This is happening as well in Sabaki-san's area?" Ibuki asked as Tachibana nodded.

"Sabaki had also agreed with Ishiwari's thoughts. That should explain why the Makamou had appeared randomly out of place and season, as well as why had the Makamou become even more stronger despite having neither armor or crossbreeding between the creatures."

Hibiki frowned.

"Danki also said the same as well. After hearing what Asumu had said, he admitted he himself felt that the Bakegani and other Makamou had been even more ferocious and harder to handle than usual. As if there was something that had caused the Makamou to become wild."

"Hmm, saying it like that this somehow appeared similar as to when Orochi had began." mused Tachibana. "But there haven't any reports of a Kodama forest being sighted anywhere so these chains of events might not even relate to Orochi. Despite one could see it was similar to Orochi. I needed to confirm my suspicions on this with the other branches first."

Hibiki and Ibuki nodded in agreement before excusing themselves for the day.

xxx

The next day, Hibiki took a short walk along the countryside before stumbling onto Asumu in the middle of the path. He shrugged.

"Taking a morning stroll?" Hibiki asked as Asumu grinned.

"Yeah. Though, I'm actually heading towards Tachibana's. Are you doing your trainings again this morning, Hibiki-san?"

Hibiki shrugged.

"I actually wanted to see you. Walk back together?" Hibiki asked as Asumu walked alongside him.

Both of them were quiet as they headed back towards Tachibana's before Hibiki finally broke the ice.

"Never expected to see you as an Oni back there. Kind of stumped me a bit there."

Asumu let out a nervous laugh.

"Just never tell Kiriya-kun about that transformation, he'd probably go bonkers about the Oni issue again. Then again Hibiki-san, I hadn't seen him around."

Hibiki just smiled.

"Kiriya-kun had just recently become his own Oni for a while. Yoshino had assigned him to another district though, so you probably won't see him for some time. Why? Missed him already?"

Asumu immediately shook his head. "No... umm, not really. I know you'd probably gonna be concerned about it but well..." Asumu cocked his head to his side a bit, "...even though he hadn't been as strange as he was when I first met him, I still felt awkward around Kiriya-kun. You can understand that, could you Hibiki-san?" Asumu said as he looked up towards Hibiki.

Hibiki just nodded as Asumu continued. "Anyway, Kiriya-kun always gets hyped about being an Oni when I'm around and I rather he didn't find out about what happened in Hokane. He probably gonna think I tried to get back to becoming an Oni just to show off to him that I'm better than him."

Asumu rolled his eyes around as he said it aloud. _Kiriya would definitely do that. He'd probably even rush back here to demand a duel or something like he used to do last time_, thought Asumu as he cringed.

"Anyhow Hibiki-san... what about the incident in Hokane? Did Tachibana-san say anything about it?"

Hibiki glanced back towards him.

"Don't worry... it doesn't seem like another Orochi is coming. But we would still be on a lookout for any other similar occurrences. Even then, we'd probably be able to deal with it soon." he told Asumu he assured him before giving him a salute.

Asumu grinned.

"Yeah, I believe so... Hibiki-san!"

xxx

Hibiki just kept observing Asumu, silently as everyone had been delighted to see him again while he helped out with the shop. Todoroki and Ibuki had also dropped by to chat with the boy, having not seen him for a while. Akira had also arrived earlier to the shop, after Hinaka had called asking her to help out with the customers. Somehow, this turned out to become a sort of reunion party for Asumu and Akira. Hibiki chuckled. It was not as if they have been gone a long time but since both of the youngsters had entered university, and Asumu still having worked part-time job at the hospital; times like this where both of the youngsters were around at the shop were quite rare. Because of that, everyone had always cherished the times when Akira and Asumu paid them all a visit every random days.

Hibiki smiled to himself.

He had never thought he would see the day when Asumu would actually become an Oni. Considering the circumstances that had happened in the past, he had surrendered at the fact that Asumu would end up becoming a doctor instead of an Oni. Still, seeing Asumu that day as an Oni and hearing from both Danki and Shoki about how well he had fought for the first time had sparked a sense of pride in him. Not like he was never been proud of Asumu before but seeing how Asumu had become even stronger made him even more proud.

And now they had another thing to worry about with this new incident that felt strongly similar like Orochi. For some reason he cannot help but be concerned. The cleansing ritual that they had performed few years ago should have kept Orochi at bay for another long time. So what was the cause of this new incident?

"It's going to start soon."

Hibiki jumped as he was startled at the sound of that voice before rising from his chair to walk out. Kasumi and Midori had turned to ask him what was bothering him as Hibiki waved them off to tell that he would just be out for a while to take some air.

Outside, Hibiki walked up towards the silhouette of a man as the man turned to face him. Hibiki gasped aloud as his suspicions were correct.

"Zanki-san... how? I thought—"

Zanki just smiled bitterly.

"Unnatural existence tend to happen whenever nature and the order of the worlds had been disturbed. This was such occurrence. This world is facing another danger, Hibiki."

Hibiki bit his lips.

"Then it's really not Orochi but another danger as worse?" Hibiki asked as Zanki nodded.

"Someone had tempered with the order of the world and changes would start to affect the other. It cannot be avoided for long."

"Someone?" Hibiki asked again, frowning.

"Someone from another world... and time. Whatever changes that had been done in that person's world would soon start to affect the other worlds... not just ours. These changes... would certainly not be good." said Zanki again.

"Zanki-san?" Todoroki's voice suddenly was heard behind him as Hibiki sighed. But before he could turn, an apparition seemed to appear from behind Zanki as the former Oni disappeared into it. Todoroki ran up to his side in surprise as he asked Hibiki what happened.

Hibiki remained deep in thought as he pondered about the warning Zanki had brought with him.


	5. Chapter 5: Kenzaki's departure

To my favourite Jokers... I love you.

az: I had actually wrote a side extra story on Asumu part. Not sure if I should put it in. Since it's not really complete... and it's just a side muse. We'll see. Aside from that, I felt a bit lonely (haha). Not that I'm holding my chapters hostages, more like there are times when I'm blur and cannot type, therefore the slow chapters. That, or life gets in the way or I'm busy doing beta for people. Reviews are nice though. XP. At least I'd know who's been reading... and what they thought of the chapters.

A/N: Sorry for being on hiatus for so long. Life... and other fandom are OSMly distracting. I had 4 unfinished chapters written simultaneously lay unattended for a long time. XD. And no, I still haven't watched Decade's movies so no need telling me about it in the reviews. Just review about this chapter or anything about this story and nothing else.

* * *

Rippled Dimensions

Chapter 5: Kenzaki's departure

By honou-no-izumi alias Izzu

o

o

Hajime picked up the tray full of empty glasses and plates as he handed it to Haruka-san. He sighed. It had only been four years since he had lived in such a peaceful time. Four years, yet it had felt dreadfully long.

He wondered how Kenzaki would be doing. It had been so long since they last saw each other on that forest hill, that time when they had last fought. That time when he thought would be the last day he would be free. (Unless of course somebody else unsealed all of them all over again.)

Since then, Hajime occasionally could feel Kenzaki's presence... yet either it was just illusions, he never had met Kenzaki again. Kenzaki... really hold his vow stubbornly. He really did tried very hard to stay as far as possible from him to avoid either of them starting another Battle Fight. Not that _Master_ will not draw them towards each other any more...

Suddenly Hajime froze. _This sensation... this feeling, there cannot be any mistake about it—!_

Amane entered the cafe, just back from school; as she noticed his peculiar behaviour right away.

"Hajime-san? Something wrong?"

Hajime blinked several times before looking down towards her.

"Ek? Eeh... nothing, it's nothing. I'm alright." he said unconvincingly. He turned to look outside the windows as he saw the very thing that he had sensed earlier.

"Amane-chan! I'm sorry... something came up. I see you later!" Hajime hastily told Amane as the girl and her mother watched him leave in surprise.

Mutsuki who had happened to walk into the cafe, brushed pass him as Hajime seemed to have not noticed him. He then frowned when he saw Hajime riding his bike away as a black metal slab nearby just went up and followed him. Mutsuki blinked again in disbelief. What was _that_?

Shaking his head, Mutsuki went inside the cafe as he asked Amane.

"Amane-chan, did Nozomi-san arrived already?"

Amane shook her head before showing him his table, as she teased him again over his relationship with Nozomi...

xxx

Tachibana Sakuya ran up the stairs hastily as he deftly made his way past the security system of the rebuild BOARD Headquarters. It did not take him a while before reaching the president's office. Sure enough, Aikawa Hajime was inside with Karasuma-san.

"Hajime, what are you doing here?" he cried as Hajime turned towards him. Karasuma-san turned towards him as well.

"Aikawa-kun wanted to ask if the machine that had been used to unseal the Undeads were still around."

Tachibana stared at Hajime in surprise.

"Why? Didn't the Battle Fight ended in a stalemate already? Why do you need to—"

"I need to find Kenzaki."

Tachibana fumed.

"Even without the machine we could still use Leangle's Remote card to unseal any Undeads. But why? Did you want to risk the destruction of the world just so you could—"

"Tachibana-kun... calm down."

He glared towards the old man in disbelief. But before he could fume some more, Hajime spoke.

"This world would be in danger again... something much worse than before. But if either Kenzaki or myself should leave this world... the roaches would appear again to destroy this world and reset. Battle Fight would restart again after everything was destroyed. There would be nothing left to be saved."

Tachibana frowned.

"What are you talking about?" he asked as Karasuma suddenly got a call. He turned his attention towards the old man as Karasuma hastily rushed back towards his desk. That caught his attention as Tachibana came up beside him to look at the computer.

It appeared some strange creatures had suddenly started to terrorize certain cities around Tokyo as Karasuma accessed the network system that had been used to monitor the city. Tachibana looked up towards Hajime as he nodded.

"Those are called Fangire, they came from another world."

Karasuma and Tachibana rose as they gave him questioning him.

"What are you talking about? How did you know about this?" Tachibana inquired as Hajime kept his silence.

"It's what..._ Master_ had told me."

Karasuma frowned.

"And what does this having to do with finding Kenzaki and releasing the Undeads?"

Hajime shrugged.

"Something... outside of this world was trying to merge everything into one. But every world have its own set of rules for it to exist. If all were to merge, that includes everything else living in those worlds. Humans, animals, whatever creatures that had existed in each worlds like this one. It was almost the same as this world's Reset. As much as this would mean that even the Battle Fight would also be no more, so would be the rest of everything else."

"Regardless of our choices at hand, this world would still face its destruction."

Karasuma and Tachibana were silent, speechless at hearing the words that Hajime had spoken. To think they had only been able to live in peace again for several years since that dreadful day when the Undeads were released.

Hajime took a moment of silence before continuing.

"I would also like to ask for you to give me my deck, Kenzaki's deck as well as his Blade Rouser, Karasuma-san."

President Karasuma frowned at him. "Why? You'll only need to unseal some of the higher level Undead to ensure we didn't provoke the restart or reset of the Battle Fight so why—"

Hajime stared at them incredulously.

"Didn't you two saw those creatures from the other worlds? Aside from the other Undeads, those creatures cannot be stopped unless we used the Rider strength! When Kenzaki leave this world, I would be the next strongest Rider in this world! And who knows how strong the other creatures that came here are—"

"You forgot that we still have Garren and Leangle." Tachibana argued. _As well as Kerberos card, _he added silently. Despite the fact he and Karasuma had never considered to use that card.

Hajime turned towards him.

"Leangle aside, since we probably need to only unseal his King and Queen; can you use your Fusion King abilities?"

Tachibana took a step back. When putting it at that angle, what Hajime said made sense. Kenzaki aside, Hajime was the next best thing they had. Joker's powers were indeed powerful but unstable. Though as Wild Chalice, Hajime's powers were somewhat stable. He and Mutsuki never attempted to use their King cards before... seeing the effect the fusion had with Kenzaki. If now, for some reason should he tried to use that card... how would the risk be for him? Of course he wouldn't get the same effect as Blade's King form considering his fusion ratio, but he saw how powerful Kenzaki's King card was; setting aside his other cards. Would his own King lend his powers to himself or would he be controlled by his King card instead? Knowing Kanai's personality...

"Still, how do you think you can find Kenzaki now? Who knows where in this world he could be hiding right now. You can't expect to travel to every corner in this world to—"

"He's in Japan."

Tachibana swore aloud as he almost bit his tongue in surprise.

"H-how... how did you know?" he asked as Hajime shrugged.

"Master told me. Master itself had stopped the Battle Fight and ceased its action to try bringing both Kenzaki and me to fight against each other. The threat on this world's destruction took precedence over Battle Fight. There are no use for the Battle Fight if the world would be erased regardless."

"But still... that doesn't mean anything that Kenzaki would come back here—" Karasuma argued as Hajime shook his head again.

"He would come... because those intruders would aim for him as well. Knowing him, he would come back here to see what had caused all of these new incidents; even if it meant to get closer to my reach."

"Doesn't that also mean that Kenzaki could also have come here himself?" Tachibana argued before shaking his head. "No, Kenzaki wouldn't come any near to this place... he would have still kept his distance."

Hajime nodded again. "Kenzaki would not be able to understand Master's words so he wouldn't have been able to find out what was the cause of all of this. I _need_ to relay Master's message to him. Please."

Tachibana bit his lips as he exchange looks with Karasuma. Seeing the older man nodding his head at him, he went towards the vault and took out a large metal case before returning towards the other two men. He sighed as he opened the case to pass Hajime's deck, Kenzaki's deck and his Blade Rouser to Hajime. Hajime quickly grab the things and kept in inside his jacket pocket as he nodded to them.

"Thank you. And I believe... you would tell Mutsuki about this? I've passed him earlier, but then I haven't found out about this until much later—I'm not sure if I'd meet him again any time soon."

"I'll tell him. Don't worry."

Hajime nodded as he bid his leave. Tachibana hastily called out towards him as Hajime turned around.

"Be careful. You and Kenzaki—if you meet him, tell him that. Tell him also to take care of himself."

Hajime smiled.

"I'll tell him that."

xxx

Umeda district. Osaka.

Kenzaki hurriedly kicked off one of the strange monsters that had suddenly emerged from the nearby railway station as he urged the people he saved to run away as fast as they can. So far, he managed to get a lot of people away from this place—though he had some misgivings about changing into his Joker form and fight these monsters by himself. Despite—Kenzaki changed his form in a split second to attack another monster to prevent it from hurting a pair of school children before reverting back. He bit his lips as he realized the futility of his actions.

If only he had his Blade Rouser—fighting as a Kamen Rider wouldn't feel as awkward compared to that of Navy Joker—but he couldn't go back to get it. He wouldn't risk meeting Hajime again despite these circumstances...

A shrill cry alerted him as he turned to find one lunging towards him to attack him. Kenzaki prepared a stance to deflect the attack before a blast of light pierce through the monster as it fell to the ground. He frowned as the monster suddenly became all glassy like a stained glass before it shattered into nothing. He turned towards the person who had saved him as he cried aloud.

Chalice cocked his head at him as he stepped down from his bike.

"As I expected, I was right to find you right away—" he said as Chalice threw the Blade Rouser and the Spade deck towards Kenzaki. Not allowing Kenzaki to speak, Hajime brushed past him to attack two more of the Fangires.

"Explanations later," he said briefly as Kenzaki transformed. Half an hour later, all of the attacking monsters were defeated as both Undeads remained standing.

Kenzaki released Blade's transformation as he glared towards Hajime.

"Why are you here? Didn't you care about what happened if we meet again? Or did you came—"

Hajime shrugged.

"You saw those Fangires just now, didn't you? There are more at stake right now than you think, Battle Fight is the least of our concerns right now."

Kenzaki frowned.

"What did you mean?"

As he spoke, a huge metal slab that he recognised as the master of the Battle Fight landed beside Hajime. Hajime stared at him, unsmiling.

"You'd understand better if you see it yourself. There would be someone who would explain to you about everything. Right now... it's best if you leave this world."

Kenzaki blinked at his friend, unable to comprehend his words as he stuttered.

"W-what? What did you mean—Hajime? Go where—how can I... won't this world be destroyed once I leave?"

"There would not be only me being the Undead in this world—" said Hajime cryptically as he grabbed Kenzaki's hand to confront Master. Kenzaki stared at him in surprise before noticing that he was not hearing or having any urge to attack Hajime, despite the close proximity.

Hajime smiled at him.

"My job here is done. Everyone sends you their regards, take care. Our world—as well as the rest of them—would depend on you and your comrades."

"Huh?"

Kenzaki only managed to let out a gasp as Hajime suddenly pushed him towards Master. Unexpectedly, his body did not touch the metallic surface of the object that supposedly being the Master of this world as he went through it—entering a whole new different dimension as he fell flat on the 'ground'. The 'hole' in front of him quickly dissolved as Hajime; as well as his world, disappeared from his sight.

He frowned as he turned around to find that he was not alone. One of the few people who were standing before him turned towards him as he sighed.

"Finally... another one have arrived."


	6. Chapter 6: Takumi's reunion

az: This chapter kind of tied with Reset. It was mostly finished but only remained unpublished due to chapter 5 being WIP. Yes, I am a bit biased to Yuji. XP

* * *

Rippled Dimensions

Chapter 6: Takumi's reunion

By honou-no-izumi alias Izzu

o

o

In the middle of Shinjuku, Kaido Naoya wandered aimlessly looking for something that he could do with his time. Noticing a group of youngsters loitering at a corner of the street, he smiled weakly. How long was it since, when he had been just like those kids? Being a normal human being. It was almost five years now since then, yet it felt as if ages had passed by. So many things had happened that year...

Kaido turned to head towards his usual spot when suddenly something caught his eyes as he stopped in his tracks. He blinked. _'That cannot be possible!'_, he thought as he dashed towards the corner of the road where he thought he saw her. As the other city people moved pass him to attend to their own business, he looked around him to find no one.

"I must have been hallucinating..." he muttered by himself as he walked away..

xxx

"Pleased to be at your service. Come again at the shop some other time..." said Takumi, bowing at the housewife as he walked out towards the corridors. Minutes later he was out of the apartment complex and headed towards the van. Mari greeted him as he opened the van door to get in.

"All done?" she asked as Takumi started the van. He nodded.

"Yeah. This next delivery is our last stop for today." he said as he took a left turn on the next corner. Both of them continued chatting as suddenly he hit the brakes. Both of them were jerked back on their seats but unharmed as Mari turned towards him in surprise.

"Is there something wrong... Taku—" Takumi abruptly got out of the van as Mari looked at him in concern.

"Takumi?" she asked him again as he appeared distracted. She turned to look towards the direction he was looking as she saw nothing. She turned back towards him as Takumi already returned inside the van.

"What is it?" she asked immediately afte she returned inside the van as Takumi remained silent. The rest of the day remained quiet as they left for their next delivery..

xxx

Saeko paced restlessly around the cramped space of a lab she was in. Five years. It had been almost five years she had been hiding in that lab as she tried to revive the Orphenoch King without any result. Five years...

What was the point of her being a true Orphenoch now if she had to remain in hiding; fearing for her life to meet its end before succeeding on her effort to revive the King, should she risk going out of the lab in the open? She was not going to decay but she was still no immortal. Nor was she invincible. What was the point to continue on this existence if she could not do anything that she wanted to do?

A slight shuffling on the floor alerted her senses at once as she turned to look around her. She took a glance at the tank containing the Orphenoch King as it—he remained unresponsive. Then who—she immediately swerved towards the door as her eyes met blue. Smart Lady bowed at her formally as she frowned.

"How did you found this place?" she demanded as Smart Lady spoke without expression.

"We'd like to take the King."

She backed away cautiously. "Who's _we?_" as another person walked out onto the light behind Smart Lady. Saeko immediately cursed as she attacked _him_. The person immediately countered her attacks using his broad sword without transforming. Saeko snarled.

"You're supposed to be dead!" she cried out as Yuji smiled.

"There's no time for resistance. We need that Orphenoch King—wait, we need _both_ of you for things to be done."

"Like hell I'd follow you!" she exclaimed as Yuji took out his Kaixa phone. Yuji leered towards Saeko.

"I didn't say I was going to ask you nicely." he said as Saeko stared at him in alarm...

xxx

Takumi stared into empty space as he paused in the middle of ironing. Could he be imagining it? It was already five years. Why did he started to see things now after such a long time?

"You've never changed. I wonder if that's a good thing or not."

Takumi turned around abruptly as he stared at the man leaning on the counter in disbelief.

"Kusaka?" he asked in surprise. "How—"

"Don't ask me how I came back. Hell I don't even know how. Doesn't matter anyway. I thought I'd see something interesting here but I guess it's still the same. See ya!" he said callously as he left the shop.

"Oi wait!" Takumi exclaimed as he contemplated to climbing over the counter, before thinking the better of it and ran out through the proper exit. "Wait, you bas—!" he cried again as he saw no more trace of him around.

"Don't you mind him. I guess no one actually change a lot since then, regardless whether they were still living... or whatever—"

Takumi turned around as he took a long breath.

"Kiba! How—?"

Kiba Yuji just shrugged at him lazily before taking a look inside the shop.

"Better we talk elsewhere. I rather not be here." said Yuji as Takumi argued.

"Is it not a good place? Mari would be glad to see you again—"

Yuji laughed coldly.

"Right now, that's not important. Something is happening... and it will affect a lot of people. We'll need to talk about that... other things can wait for later."

Yuji gestured towards his car parked nearby as Smart Lady came out of the car and bowed at him.

xxx

"I saw you earlier, staring at a house. I thought I was dreaming. But it really is you right now, in front of me." said Takumi as Yuji shrugged.

"That house... had been where my uncle used to live in..." said Yuji as he knelt over his and Osada Yuka's grave_._ He let out a long sigh as he ran his hand over the grave stone marker. Takumi shrugged.

"I've tried to collect all of them, you know. I did. Your ashes, I mean. But I guess some of it must have been blown by the wind. I mean... sometimes the wind can enter that underground place, right?"

Yuji turned his head towards him.

"Inui-kun—"

"I mean... that must have been the explanation, right? I didn't actually collect your ashes—and you're still alive, in front of me—"

"Inui-kun! Stop," Yuji said sternly as Takumi stopped talking. He glanced towards Smart Lady as she remained standing quietly beside Yuji. Yuji brushed aside some of the dry leaves on Yuka's grave marker.

"Thank you." Yuji started to say as he remained kneeling over the two grave markers. "I used to imagine myself dying without a grave. After all... it's not like my uncle would even remember me or even cared if I had lived or died. If he's still alive, that is. Thank you for doing this for Yuka as well."

Takumi fidgeted, feeling awkward to hear Kiba addressed Osada-san by her first name but set that aside.

"It's nothing..." he said, before looking at Smart Lady. Seeing that she was not going to say anything—he still never found out who exactly had placed the two markers on Kiba and Osada's grave five years ago—he decided to not mention that other fact. Perhaps that lady in blue really did placed it for them or not—but he was rambling in his head now, he should stop.

Yuji, still facing his grave stone; shook his head.

"No, I should thank you. I never thought that anyone would still remember me."

Takumi felt his heart clenched at that thought as he shook his head.

"You can't say that! There are still people who remembered you... and Osada-san. Me... Mari, Keitaro, Kaido—" Takumi turned to look towards Smart Lady as she stared back at him. He shook his head again as he added. "We all still remember you! Even when you had been like that—that time; if it's not because of you holding down that Orphenoch King, you wouldn't have to—"

Yuji rose to his feet. He let out a sigh before turning around to face him.

"Still, thank you. I'm grateful for this, after what I've done—"

"Enough. You don't need to say it again," said Takumi painfully as Yuji smiled at him weakly. He noticed Takumi brushing his hand on his sleeves as he remembered his real purpose for this meeting.

"Inui..." he started to say as Takumi glanced back at him. "My existence in front of you now, is not natural."

Yuji started to chuckle.

"Then again, for us being the Original Orphenochs... our existence were already unnatural, isn't it? What more can top that?" He shrugged again.

"But Inui, this time it's different. I myself am not sure as to how I managed to survive that day. Perhaps, I had another life after that _me_ that had been killed that day. And this _me_ had continued living like a normal person until now before I've awakened to my past memories. Whatever it is that had happened, I'm here now. And I believe that my being here, right now... has a purpose."

"Wait a minute!" Takumi said suddenly as he started waving his arm around. "I don't understand what you're trying to say—"

Yuji stared back at him, his expression suddenly became very serious.

"Something is going to happen to this world. I can sense it. Something big is going to happen to this world. Or perhaps it already had. Who knows? But what I know is that, we'd need Riders. We really need those who can use the Gears." he said as he turned towards Takumi.

"Inui-kun, you still had the Faiz Gear with you, isn't it? How about the Delta Gear?"

"Er... umm, yes... and Delta also—but what—"

"Whatever's going to happen soon, going to effect everyone. Orphenochs especially. And there's the other people... the normal humans. Even if we could find someone else who could use the Gears, there's no guarantee—our world depends on this greatly—it's much too risky. And could you also contact that other person, who used Delta that time—"

"Kiba, what's wrong... what—"

"I need you to follow me to Smart Brain." said Yuji as he scratched his forehead. "—What was the name of that friend of Mari—?"

"He's... Mihara—"

"Good—" Yuji started to say as he grabbed Takumi by his arm. Takumi followed behind him without any choice as he noticed that Kiba had been holding the Kaixa phone. He held his hand over the car door Smart Lady had graciously opened for him as he grabbed Yuji by the shoulders.

"What's this about? I—"

"Your body has started to decay, isn't it? Just like Hanagata-san. But we can't let that happening now, especially you—get in!" said Yuji, urgently as he forced Takumi to get into the car.

He slammed the door close as he got on the front passenger seat. As Smart Lady started the car and drove the car onto the main road, Yuji held his phone next to his ear as he started to call on someone.

"Helo? Sonoda-san? Please don't ask me right now but I need you to find your friend..."

xxx

Takumi stepped back the moment he saw the other two occupants in the lab.

"Kiba! What's the meaning of this—" Takumi exclaimed as he saw Saeko and the body of the Orphenoch King in a tank, at a closed glass lab beside the one he was in. "What are you trying to do... Kiba!"

"I'm trying to find a way to stop your decaying process! The world is facing destruction! I can't let you--"

Takumi grabbed Yuji's neck by the collars of his shirt as he snarled.

"I will not allow you to change me into... THAT!" exclaimed Takumi, pointing towards Saeko as Yuji slapped his fist away.

"I will not allow you to leave unless I found a _cure_ for you. Especially you..."

Takumi shook his head. "I can't believe this! You're still—!"

"Follow me! There's something that I want to show you. Make your decision then after you've seen this." said Yuji sternly as he grabbed Takumi's arm. He turned towards Smart Lady.

"Continue the research on the King and Saeko. We'll be back later..." he said again as he dragged Takumi out of the labs.

Outside at the lobby of the Smart Brain Research Building, Takumi pushed Yuji away from himself.

"Forget it. I'm leaving. You're not going to change my mind regardless of where you're taking me or what ever you're showing me—"

Yuji glared at him, annoyed. He took out his phone half way, in the middle of calling his staff as he hissed.

"There's a time for being unreasonable and THIS is not one of them. It took me several months to locate Saeko and I will not waste any time in preparation for the fu—ugh!"

Suddenly a trolley-full of baggage rammed into Yuji and he and Takumi got thrown off onto the marble floor. Takumi hit the floor hard on his arm while Yuji smashed towards a nearby glass display; as the glass shattered against his weight. Takumi looked up towards Yuji's Kaixa phone that had skidded several meters away from them as he watched someone's hand picking it up. Takumi sat up to get a better look at the person as his eyes met those of Kusaka's.

"You?" he cried as Kusaka waved the phone at him.

"Thank you for the souvenirs..." he said, smirking as he dashed for the exit. In that few seconds, Takumi managed to see that Kusaka had also been holding a silver Smart Brain case that looked suspiciously like the case that used to hold the rest of the Kaixa Gears.

"Why you sneak—!" Takumi cried as he was preparing to give chase before a firm hand stopped him. He turned to find Yuji limping towards him.

"Let him go. The place I'm taking you to is more important than Kaixa..." he said as Takumi stared at him in alarm.

"You're bleeding!" he cried as he tried to take a look at the cut on Yuji's forehead and cheeks. Yuji waved his concerns away as Takumi argued about it before taking out a clean handkerchief from his own pocket and wrapped it around Yuji's right arm that was also injured from the glass shards.

Several workers scampered towards the scene, helping Yuji and Takumi up while some others went to clean up the mess as Yuji nudged him towards the car parking lot where another Smart Brain staff was waiting with the car.

"This is somewhat impressive. It seemed as if you had never died or left this company." Takumi commented as both of them got into the car. Yuji turned his glance elsewhere.

"I actually had some thinking that time after you left me to get to the King. Before I went to that underground base, I've left Lady with some instruction. That's all... and the company had been kept going ever since."

"But then... for you to right away returning back to your post—"

Yuji snorted.

"That was never my intention. In fact... it was Lady who found me. She was the one that insisted for me to come back. And then later..." Yuji trailed off as he continued staring towards the area outside the car. Takumi followed his line of view as he finally noticed the destination the car was taking them to. He turned towards Yuji in confusion.

"Here? What are we doing here?" Takumi asked as the car stopped in front of the entrance to the underground base.

Yuji sighed as he opened the car door and walked outside. Takumi followed behind him as Yuji told the driver to wait for them. He turned his attention towards Takumi as he gestured for him to follow him into the base. Inside, he let out a long sigh as they walked deeper inside.

"I started to sense this... not long after I'm back with Smart Brain. I went back to this place... because I felt it was strange for me to have even survived that day. I thought I could find my answers here..."

They continued walking as Takumi started to recognize some parts of the last battle scene. Right now, there were some supports erected around the place where there used to be stone pillars; destroyed before during their last battle with the Orphenoch King. The battle... that he thought had killed the King at the cost of the life of the person in front of him. Yuji lifted his arm to wipe the blood on his forehead as Takumi remembered that the man had been injured earlier.

He quickened his steps to catch him as he spoke. "You really had to get someone to take a look at that."

Yuji just shrugged again. "I'm alright." he said as Takumi started muttering under his breath, scolding his friend for being oblivious over his own injuries. Suddenly they heard rushing of foot steps behind them as they turned around towards the direction of the sound.

Mari, Keitaro and Kaido stopped on their mad dash as they finally reached the other two.

"Kiba-san!" cried Mari as Yuji just smiled back towards her. Takumi turned his attention back to him as Yuji turned back towards the direction of the core of the base.

"Oi, Kiba!" cried Kaido as well as Yuji sighed.

"Considering most of you are here already, I might as well show you all." he said again before walking away. Seeing that Yuji was not going to explain to them any further than he already had, the others had no choice but to follow behind him.

They eventually reached the core where Mari and the others had seen the Orphenoch King being held to complete its form five years ago as Yuji took another turn elsewhere. They continued walking before finally stopping in front of a sealed entrance—Takumi noticed that it appeared to be newly erected—as Yuji entered some codes on the touch pad to allow them to enter. He motioned the others to follow as he entered the room.

"This had been the control room of that core that we had just passed earlier. Lady had told me that some vandals had broke in this place two years ago... but this was not what I want to show you."

Takumi and the others glanced around the badly trashed control room as they stopped in front of a big super computer. Yuji turned towards them.

"Mind helping me push this lump of junk aside?" he asked as Keitaro looked at him incredulously.

"Are you crazy? You see how big that thing was? How do you think—" Takumi brushed him aside as he and Kaido used their Orphenoch strength to push the block of metal aside. Yuji also helped as the block moved to its side, to where it had originally been placed.

"What the—!" Takumi exclaimed when he saw the _thing _that had been behind the wrecked super computer hard drive as Yuji reverted into his human form.

Mari's eyes widened in surprise as she stared at the section of the wall, where now a water-like apparition was hovering over—not, that part of the wall itself was the apparition. But instead of a full wall, it was just a small hole; barely enough for even the smallest of man to squirm pass through the hole.

"What was that..." she asked as Yuji shrugged.

"It's a rip between this world and another like it. It's a dimensional rip between worlds." Yuji explained before turning around towards them. "Something must have happened in another dimension... world, just like ours; that's causing this rip. Regardless of what is it, our world is facing her own destruction."

"But Kiba... this... just can't possibly—!" exclaimed Takumi as Yuji sighed.

"Perhaps you could understand this more if you see this..." Yuji said suddenly as he waved his hand over the mirror apparition on the wall.

Immediately, the _hole_ enlarged itself into a wide plane mirror wall and washed pass all of them. Everyone other than Yuji ducked for cover as the scenery changed into a plain field. Takumi looked up towards his surroundings as the other also started to glance around to realize that they were no longer inside the control room. Takumi blinked in confusion as he turned towards Yuji.

"What—what had you done?" Takumi exclaimed as Yuji just kept his silence and hung his head low. Everyone else turned towards him after hearing Takumi's outburst.

Yuji took a long breath before facing all of them again.

"Just watch." he said as the others turned their attention towards the direction he was looking at. Everyone gave a cry of surprise. The plains had been empty, save for them for the few minutes earlier but now somehow there was a lone girl in a white fluffy dress standing a few meters in front of them as Mari called out towards her. The girl did not respond to her.

It was more like she had not even heard Mari's voice.

"It's no use. She wouldn't hear you anyway." Yuji spoke again as Mari turned towards him.

"But why? And where are we? What are we doing here?" she asked as Yuji smiled, to the annoyance of the others.

"We're still inside that control room. We really are..." he said as he turned his attention towards the others. "This was one of the scenes in that girl's dreams that she had seen."

Takumi frowned and was about to ask further but before he can do it, the place was blaring with sounds of explosions and cries of anguish. He turned back to see a massive amount of destruction happening all around him as he saw various Kamen Riders, even his own; fighting (against who?) and scattered around in a complete chaos. The others started to back away from the scene as Takumi slowly stepped forward to get a closer look.

Immediately the vision ended and they were back in the control room. Yuji collapsed in exhaustion as Kaido caught him in his fall.

"Are you all right?" he asked in concern. Before Yuji could answer, he stiffened suddenly as if he has been electrically shocked. Yuji cringed in pain as he covered both of his ears tightly. Takumi exclaimed in surprise as he rushed to his side.

"Kiba, what's wrong? Kiba! Can you hear my voice?" he cried as Yuji slowly regained his composure. He looked up towards both of his friends as he shook his head slowly.

"I'm all right. Let's get out of here..." he said, weakly.

Takumi was unconvinced, seeing Yuji being so pale but kept quiet as all of them walked out of the control room; with Yuji being supported by both Naoya and Takumi. Not long after they left the room, Yuji had another spasm as he finally fainted. Alarmed, Takumi tried shaking Yuji's body to no avail. Before he could do anything else, Mari's unexpected scream grabbed his attention as he turned towards her.

To his and the other's surprise, another of those mirror-like apparition that they have seen earlier appeared before them like walls made of water. But unlike the vision that Yuji had led them to see, a number of monsters, unlike the Orphenochs that they were used to; appeared before them. They were colourful for one, unlike the usual grey shades that was like an Orphenoch's. They also had leathery appearances rather that the sculptured looks Orphenoch often have. That told him enough that the monsters before them were unlike the usual enemies they used to fight.

"Damn it! If only I brought along Faiz..." he groaned as Keitaro hurried back beside him and shoved him the small Smart Brain briefcase.

"Eeh! Keitaro, how?" Takumi gasped as Keitaro explained.

"When Mari-chan receiced the call earlier, I thought you might need this—" he said as Takumi immediately took out Faiz belt from the case.

Putting on the belt and taking out the Faiz phone, he motioned towards Mari and Keitaro to stay put as he dialled the number 5 three times on the phone.

"Watch over Kiba for me," he said as he transformed into Faiz. Faiz immediately rushed forward towards the enemy as he sent a hard kick towards the face of a monster that looked a lot like a hybrid between a man and a roach. Naoya also leapt forward, changing into his Snake Orphenoch form as he fought some other of the monsters.

"For Dai Shocker!"

One of the monsters started to shout as it jumped to deliver a hard blow onto Faiz. Mari cried aloud before the Toad-like monster was thrown away; having been shot with multiple rounds of gun blast. Faiz turned around to look and swerved again to see who had attacked the kaijin. To his surprise, it was AutoVajin which he thought had been destroyed five years ago.

Another explosion eruption near him as Faiz turned to find another kaijin, looking like a walking Venus flytrap; fell after being shot. He looked back behind him to find Yuji holding a Gear Phone Blaster while being supported by Mari. Turning back his attention towards the remaining enemy, he watched as they retreated back into the mirror apparition that had appeared again behind them.

Now safe again, Faiz disarmed as Takumi and Naoya dashed towards Yuji's side. Yuji let himself fall on the floor as his strength left him.

"Kiba-san! You're all right?" Mari asked as Yuji nodded his head.

"I'm just exhausted." he said slowly as Takumi knelt beside him.

"What's that?", both Keitarou and himself exclaimed as Takumi gestured towards the phone blaster. Yuji smiled as he changed the phone back into its normal phone mode.

Upon closer look, Takumi noticed that the phone was similar to his own Faiz phone but having a different symbol embedded on top of it. Yuji shrugged as he explained.

"It's a new Gear I've created, based on the notes I've found from Hanagata-san's research. It's still under works though, alongside that other one involving the King." he said as he looked back towards Takumi. "I've got to try fighting my own way regardless. This incoming threat... neither humans nor Orphenochs are safe, and we're not just fighting among these two sides right now."

Takumi sighed. To think he had been so shallow, even now he had never been able to understand Kiba Yuji's thought process.

He shrugged.

"I'm in." he abruptly spoke as Yuji eyed him in surprise. "I'll go along with your plan—whatever you wanted to do to stop my body from dying inside before I would be able to fight those enemies or whatever that's threatening this world. I'll trust you on this. I'll help."

"I'll help too... you idiot." Naoya spoke as he shrugged. "I bet Mihara would think the same too. So don't push yourself too hard."

Yuji's eyes brightened as he heard Takumi and Kaido said it. He grabbed Takumi's hands as he tried hard not to burst into tears.

"Thank you. Thank you for believing in me." said Yuji gratefully, glancing at everyone around him as Takumi helped him to get off the floor...

xxx

Takumi was in a deep thought. The events from the day before as well as the things he had seen so far was still too much for him to handle. Kiba had explained even more about the situation once Mihara had arrived, since there had been some reports before of humans and Orphenochs disappearing mysteriously. Considering that Smart Brain had the technology to monitor almost every Orphenochs in Japan, (probably even the world but he rather not think too far) if they said that the Orphenochs had been killed mysteriously... he just had to accept it. Their data collection on all of the known Orphenochs were almost fully accurate after all.

Takumi turned to watch Kiba working tirelessly alongside his research team, with Smart Lady by his side aiding him once a while. It was kind of ironic for him to be reunited with Kiba like this, just when this world is facing another disaster. As much as this turn of fate had been harsh on himself, so it did for Kiba... as well as his other companions.

He wonder if it was possible for all of them to live in a more peaceful world.

Out of the blue, Kiba suddenly fidgeted as if a fly had just slipped into one of his ears. Takumi looked at him curiously as he rushed towards another computer and typed some commands on the keyboard. He walked towards him to ask what was wrong.

"It's another attack." Yuji said simply as he gave orders to his staffs to send some Troopers to the location.

Takumi smirked at him.

"It seemed that you've been working even harder than before you have died." said Takumi chirped as Yuji brushed him aside.

"Well... I figured that whatever these people are planning to do in our world, is related as to why this world might be facing destruction. If stopping them means saving this world, then I'll do it even if it kills me..." Yuji leered towards him as Takumi snickered.

"—again." he added as an afterthought.

"Regardless..." Takumi managed to say. "I'm happy to be able to work with you again..."

Yuji smiled. "Remember to ask me to work with you at that cleaners shop if ever we survive this ordeal." he said, to which both of them smiled.

Takumi turned to head out towards the enemy as suddenly as if realising something, Yuji called out towards him.

"Take care. There's still a lot for you to do from now on."

Takumi nodded as he left.


	7. Chapter 7: Shinji's choice

And I had revived my Ryuki-love. XDD Come to think this was the first Heisei series I ever watched before I got into the rest of the series.

az: I managed to marathon Ryuki in order to write this piece. XD Already proofed now, though I might miss some.

A/N: I wished I could include Femme/Miho in this, because I loved ShinjixMiho (oh no with ShinjixYui it GETS complicated XO) but I supposed that her story would not differ much than in Ep. Final aside from the circumstances on how they wanna decimate the number of remaining Riders as well how Ryuga gonna appear. And yeah the pairing. So I'm gonna leave her out. Her story would be up to everyone's imagination XDDD

A/N2: Final edit for TIME.

* * *

Rippled Dimensions

Chapter 7: Shinji's choice

By honou-no-izumi alias Izzu

o

o

At a certain corner at Koen Park in Shibuya, a lone man sat on his stool; not paying attention to the people all around him as he started to do a reading on himself. Considering that no one had approached him for a reading at the time, he thought... why not? But as he lighted a match and later, doing a bit of reading using his coin fortune telling; Tezuka Miyuki wore a deep frown on his face.

The reading he got seemed to be out of place, yet he felt as if the reading was not wrong. It was... in a way, related to him. As well as many others.

Tezuka shook his head over the uncomfortable feeling he had as he rose to his feet to clear his head. Unsuspectingly, he bumped onto another person as he turned to face the young man. He smiled at him.

"Oh, hi! Sorry... I hadn't been looking and I was in a rush... again," said the man who had bumped into him as Tezuka waved the concerns away.

The young man frowned at Tezuka as he continued to stare at him strangely. The young man lowered his voice as he asked Tezuka. "Do I have another bout of bad luck today?"

Tezuka suddenly burst out laughing as Kido Shinji stared at him perplexed.

"T-then, why were you looking at me so strangely?" cried Shinji, feeling uncomfortable at suddenly being laughed at for no reason. Tezuka stopped laughing as he smiled again.

"No, it's nothing like that. I was just wondering if we had known each other before this."

"Of course you did! That time, few years ago... when I accidentally ran into you—you suddenly said something about me having a bad luck and lo! I had tons of it for the rest of the day, thanks to you!"

Tezuka laughed again as he shook his head.

"No, I had a feeling that we had met slightly longer time before that," he said before his expression turned somber. "You..."

Tezuka bit his lips before continuing.

"This may be a bit sudden but I wished you to be careful. I can't explain why... but I had a feeling that something big was going to happen. And this would involve people, including you and me. I just—take care of yourself."

Shinji blinked at the man in front of him before nodding his head. It was sudden but he noticed how the man in front of him had been genuinely worried about him. Somehow, this troubled him.

"O...kay, I'll remember that. You take care of yourself as well," he said before walking away. But no sooner had he left, Shinji turned around towards him.

"Eh, I don't think I've caught your name last time. What's your name? I'm Kido. Kido Shinji!"

Tezuka smiled weakly at him.

"It's Tezuka!" he cried out as Shinji hollered his parting words back at him again before running off. Tezuka frowned as he glanced back towards his coins.

_Something is coming, Kido-san. _

_You and me... and perhaps a few more, might have to make another decision that could change our lives again. What kind of path our fates would take us this time, I wonder..._

xxx

Shinji shook his head. For some reason he couldn't shake off Tezuka's words from earlier. Not that he was really a superstitious person, but something about Tezuka's words bothered him. For some reason, he couldn't help feeling that he _had_ to take his words of caution so seriously. He couldn't explain why but somehow, he felt that he should trust Tezuka's words. Strange, to somehow have such strong feeling of trust on someone that he barely knew...

...or was it not?

Shinji frowned. For some reason, after Tezuka had mentioned it—he did realize it as well. That he also had this strange feeling that he had known Tezuka as well, much longer than he thought. What was this feeling? He wasn't a forgetful person, not that much. If he used to be friends with Tezuka in the past, he shouldn't have forgotten him that easily. Not someone like Tezuka.

Suddenly, Shinji recalled that young man he had met that time when he had gone to Atori Cafe the other day, around five or six years ago. It was the same feeling. That time, he had wondered as well whether or not he had known the man before. That person felt so familiar... it couldn't be some coincidence! Come to think, since then... he would also stumble onto some other people and have these mysterious feelings of familiarity. What should these things mean? Was it just a coincidence... or something more?

"You know, seeing Shinji's serious face is so unnatural."

Shinji turned abruptly towards his boss as he exclaimed.

"Chief Editor! W-what did you mean...? And why can't I act serious at times? I'm much older than I used to be when I first joined here!"

Okubo Daisuke looked up to him from his seat as he waved his hand at him.

"You're usually not like this. Do you have a problem... Shinji?"

"Uh... ah! Not exactly—"

_"Shinji-kun!"_

A sudden ringing sound caught his attention as Shinji turned around to look. But the sound immediately stopped as his ears again heard the nagging voice of his senior and boss. What was that?

He turned around towards Okubo as he frowned.

"Chief Editor, did you hear something just now?"

Said man glared back at him as Shinji turned his attention towards his other colleagues.

"Did any of you called me just now? Shimada... Megumi-san?"

Okubo stood up.

"What are you talking about—honestly, don't change the topic so suddenly—"

"Is there something bothering you, Shinji-kun?" asked Momoi Reiko as Shinji stared at her, bewildered.

"N-no... I—!"

Again as if on cue, the ringing came out again. Shinji glanced around to look for the source of the sound before noticing that he alone inside the office had been able to hear the loud ringing. But why?

Without thinking further, he immediately dashed out of the office to the surprise of his ORE Journal colleagues.

xxx

_"Shinji-kun!"_

Shinji turned towards the direction of the voice as he faced a glass mirror, noticing the reflection of a young woman before turning around to see no one standing behind him. He frowned as he looked back towards the glass and saw the girl still standing there in the reflection of the mirror.

"How did you—?"

_"Shinji-kun. It's been a while—" _

"How did you know my name?"

The girl kept quiet as Shinji was left with no answer. Before he could ask again, another shadow appeared behind the _girl_ as he could make out a silhouette of a _red dragon_. Red dragon?

Shinji turned around to confirm again that there was no girl standing behind him, nor was there any red dragon. Just as he was about to make some sense out of this; suddenly, flashes of images invaded his mind as memories of the past that he could not recall before rushed in like stampede. Immediately, everything came into recognition and he realized the identity of the girl. As well as the name of the red dragon, hovering behind her.

"Dragredder! Ah... Yui-chan!" he cried before looking back towards the glass but Yui has already disappeared. Shinji bit his lips as he looked around him aimlessly.

xxx

_Exactly... what happened here?_

Shinji shook his head again.

If he had remembered correctly, he had died... years ago. Then what happened after that? Did Yui-chan continued to exist in the Mirror World? How did he return to life? How did Tezuka... some of the others, came back to life? Did Ren won the Rider battle? If he didn't... then who? Did Time turned backwards and restart anew? Had the Past being changed? No. If that was so, how could he still have these memories? How could Yui-chan exist as her adult self? How could... Mirror World still existed if the past had been changed? How could he had continued living since then... while not realizing anything at all? Even now, his memories these few years had been so blurry...

"Aaaaah! I can't understand anymore!" he cried before pausing in his actions.

Megumi-san. How... did she end up being part of ORE Journal? Since when has it been? Originally, it was only _much_ later when Megumi-san had appeared in their life. When Reiko-san had been investigating the Sakura Company... he didn't even met Kitaoka until later that day, much less meeting Megumi-san. And how could he even remember everyone—?

Another ringing sound rang in his ears as Shinji grabbed his head in pain. He turned his attention towards one of the nearby mirror as he spotted a silhouette of a man. He stood up.

"KANZAKI SHIRO! What kind of new scheme are you up to now? Wha—!"

_"Calm yourself. There are explanations to everything. Everything should be clear soon."_

Shinji snarled at him.

"One thing first, Kanzaki. Tell me one thing! Everything in the _past_, the Rider Battle; they _did_ happen... right? Both you and Yui-chan should still have some kind of existence in this world! If not, how could everything still—you can't just erase your existences just like that without some kind of consequences! Or... what actually happened? Why Yui-chan suddenly—"

_"Those things do not matter now, there is no need for you to know. What's important now is that, Riders like you are needed again. The fate of the future now would depend on you Riders."_

Shinji frowned as he recalled Tezuka's words. _All of us would have to make a decision that can change our lives again._ Was this it? Then, would that mean... everyone—all of them Kamen Riders, would have to fight again? Would the rules be the same as before? Or would it be different?

He glanced back towards Kanzaki Shiro as Shinji made his resolve. Regardless of what kind of decision he would have to make, he should at least hear of what kind of situation he was in first. Even if that means, working for Kanzaki Shiro.

"Then, tell me. What do you want from me?"

xxx

What kind of situation he had been dragged into again now? Somehow, he seemed to always have bad luck with these kinds of things.

Shinji took a u-turn back towards the direction of his workplace; a sudden thought crossed his mind as he came to a decision. Without warning, a car swerved in front of him, almost at the same time as Shinji did when he took the turn. Both stopped just before they could have collided as Shinji got off the bike to get a word with the driver.

"Hey! Watch where you were... driving—"

Shinji paled as he saw the driver's face as well as the passenger before gasping aloud.

"Goro-san!"

The taller man stared at him, puzzled.

"How did you know my name?"

Shinji bit his lips. Ah, in this version of reality... neither of them had known each other yet and there was no reason to. But perhaps, it was for the better.

"Goro-chan, what's the problem?"

"Ah, Kitaoka—"

The lawyer turned his attention towards Shinji as he fidgeted. Ah, he slipped!

"Ah... err... sorry, I... recognized you from the papers! You're Kitaoka Shuichi, right? I'm Kido Shinji... from ORE Journal."

Kitaoka gave him a bored look before turning towards Goro.

"What kind of nonsense... Goro-chan, let's go. It seemed that there wasn't any casualty... and I need to get to work already."

"Yes... sensei..."

Both of them turned towards the car before Shinji grabbed Kitaoka's arm.

"You... is your health okay-never mind that, my bad," Shinji blurted suddenly, before realizing how long time had passed since then. If Kitaoka still had that illness he used to have, he wouldn't be standing here right now.

Kitaoka blinked at him in surprise as he jerked his hand back from Shinji's grasp.

"W-what... so suddenly! Don't jinx me! My health is fine, thank you!"

Shinji couldn't help sighing in relief. Perhaps everyone... including Kitaoka, had been given a new lease on life. To make up for everything that had happened _before_. Maybe this time, Kitaoka would not have any reason to become a Rider again.

_"What about the other Riders?"_

_"If their powers are needed, then their time would come as well."_

Kitaoka didn't seem to have recognized him at all as Shinji recalled his conversation with Kanzaki before. Perhaps, that man had yet to contact Kitaoka. Or maybe, there wasn't any reason for him to fight again. Shinji smiled. Probably this _was_ for the best. He grabbed Kitaoka's hand again as he took out his card and placed it in his hand.

"Ano... this may be a bit sudden but if you needed anything, come to ORE Journal. I might not be as good a journalist as my senior... but we also had a great journalist like Reiko-san. I think you'd like our Reiko-san! I'm sure we would be of some kind of help in your line of work in the future. Um... ja, I'll take my leave now. Sorry for the trouble."

As soon as he said it, Shinji hastily got on his bike and left; leaving the two bewildered men behind him.

Shinji sighed in relief. Somehow, the worries that he had been having earlier... suddenly became something not worth the concern.

xxx

"Goro-chan, don't you think that guy is strange?"

Goro Yura gave a side-glance towards the lawyer sitting across the passenger seat as he shrugged.

"That person seemed to be a nice man."

"Although a bit weird, I have to say," said Kitaoka again as he kept perusing the card Shinji had given him earlier. "Perhaps I _will_ pay a visit to this ORE Journal. I could use some help in improving my reputation to the masses after all. I've been delaying that for far too long, it's not healthy anymore to continue being like this."

He laughed as Goro appeared to also share his opinion on the matter.

"But strange, the fact about me being ill years ago was never revealed to the public. How on earth that person could have known?"

Goro shrugged.

"Regardless, sensei... I'm glad that your illness had been detected much earlier. If you had found out a bit later—"

Kitaoka sighed.

"My chance of recovery could have been almost nothing, you mean? Ah... Goro-chan, aren't you glad that your case had happened AFTER I found out about my illness?"

The other man smiled.

"No matter, I'm still glad that I could at least serve you for even longer time."

Kitaoka sighed again.

"Arara, Goro-chan. Your gratitude was too much for me. Even then, thank you. I can't imagine finding any other bodyguard as well as servant, as good as you."

Goro did not reply. Though, he knew... the man would have said something to compliment the things he had said just now. He couldn't explain why but somehow he felt cheered for some reason. Maybe it had been because of the earlier meeting with this Kido Shinji. He snorted. Perhaps, this was a sign for better things to come?

xxx

"Chief Editor, sorry. I perhaps... might be inconveniencing you a bit more in the future."

Chief Okubo looked up towards the young man as the rest of the staff stared at him in surprise. Shinji tried to cover for his action by acting indifferent but his voice quivered. He was never good at saying goodbyes after all.

"What are you saying, Shinji. What're you up to now?"

Shinji coughed a bit.

"It was something... that I should do. I'm not sure how long I would be away... or how soon I could settle this problem, but I promise I'll return soon."

"Of course you would! What are you saying, Shinji? You sounded as if this was your last goodbye!"

He smiled forcefully as he turned towards the rest of his colleagues. Yes, this was inevitable. But if his actions could save everyone, he would have no regrets to being a Rider again. He bowed to everyone without saying anything before exiting the room. The rest of the staff stared at the closed door as Shimada sighed.

"Aaah, Shinji-kun seemed to have grown up. I suddenly feel so lonely..." she said before Chief Okubo shouted at her from the other side of the office.

xxx

The old mansion still looked the same the last he remembered. Shinji entered the building as he headed upstairs towards the room filled with assortments of mirrors. If there was any place that he could find Kanzaki, this should be the place!

"Kanzaki! Where are you? Come out now!"

_"Shinji-kun?"_

Shinji turned around when he heard the ringing sound as he found Yui inside one of the mirrors.

_"Are you sure you wanted to do this? I don't want to see you having to fight again! You had been so hurt because of this before—"_

He smiled.

"It's alright. It's what I have decided. I guess I haven't changed much. Just like last time, I guess I too had a wish that I still wanted to keep. I wanted to protect everyone. As long as I could protect the people I care about from danger, I would keep on fighting as a Kamen Rider for as long as I could. I would have no regrets."

Shinji turned around as he faced Kanzaki, who had been standing behind him for a while.

"That's why, Kanzaki! I would like you to give me my card deck again."

Said man nodded his head as he took out the card deck. Shinji took it deftly before looking up towards him again.

"What about this world? What'll happen once I leave?"

"You do not have to worry about this world or the mirror world. There are still twelve Riders left. They should be enough to protect the two worlds when the destruction would begin here or when monsters from the other worlds would come to destroy this world."

Shinji sighed.

"You're right. I was silly to have worried myself..."

xxx

It was for the best.

Shinji chuckled. His life seemed like an irony. The first time he had decided to become a Rider, it had been purely by chance. He had only reached an answer for his reason to fight, when his life seemed to be on its final struggle. This time, he had chosen to fight again for the same reason but instead of closing the Mirror World, he wanted to save this world he lived in from destruction. It seemed that his life would always involve with him continuing to fight. But at least this time, he knew what it was that he should fight for.

Well, that kind of life didn't seem so bad now. At least he had managed to meet some very good friends.

Shinji gently closed the gates behind him before walking away. But obviously he was not going so far as he bumped into yet another person. When he looked up to apologize to the person, Shinji immediately wanted to cry as he recognized the man.

"Watch where you're going—eh, it's you again! Hey, what are you doing?"

Shinji sniffled as he tried to not look like an idiot to have suddenly burst into tears after meeting again an old friend, who most probably would not have any memory of him at all. But it should be fine, it would have been a lot worse if he _had _remembered everything. He couldn't believed it that it had been years since they've met. How could he have managed to live not knowing him all this time?

"This makes everyone that I would want to meet again. At least I wouldn't regret so much if there was a possibility of me not returning here again."

Akiyama Ren stared at the person before him in confusion. What kind of madness for someone to have suddenly...!

"Ne, Ren... I know you possibly wouldn't have any recollection whatsoever about me at all but I at least wanted to say something to you. _That year_... long time ago, had been the best year I've ever had. Certainly a lot of things had happened then; you could say that it had been a horrible year for all of us too. But during those times, I've managed to get to know you, Yui-chan, Tezuka, Kitaoka... those countless other people we met—and we had shared countless precious memories together. Even if some of it had been painful, there were times when we had been happy. Ren, I just wanted to say... I'm glad I had a chance to meet you. Regardless of what may happen in the future, I would always remember you. All of you."

Shinji bowed at him as he contemplated on what else to say but decided to leave it at that.

"Hey, what... what're you talking about? Hey, wait!"

Ren called out towards Shinji as suddenly a mirror-like apparition appeared in front of Shinji. Shinji turned around as he said his final goodbye.

"Oi, wait! Where are you going? Kido!"

Shinji smiled as Ren stared back at him in confusion, puzzled to have suddenly blurted out the name of the stranger without knowing.

"Take care of this world for me with the others. I will continue my fight elsewhere."

With that, he turned towards the mirror-like apparition again before stepping into it. The moment he passed through the apparition, Kido Shinji disappeared from his world completely. Another journey has now started.

* * *

az: I'm basing this scenario on the fact that it was possible that Kanzaki did not reset time but recreated time from the point before Shinji became Ryuki. Then, that should explain why Megumi ended up in ORE J much earlier as well as the part where Gai, Scissors, Imperer did not appear in the recreated time. (haha...using Den-O theory in a sense) And I don't think that Mirror World was created by Yui and Shiro. They just happened to unseal it and unknowingly created the monsters as well. Kanzaki might as well recreated the past using Mirror World's powers. XD

Or... Kanzaki did try to turn back time, which could have led to the two outcomes of 13 Riders, Final and lastly this outcome. And maybe more. So perhaps while trying to turn back time for good, the time ended up recreated instead of resetted. You decide. (Yes, I used to read the old interviews thing long ago, I forgot.)


	8. Chapter 8: Yuusuke's resolve

az: Haha~ finally I started this. Actually I've finished Kuuga and Agito long ago after I've done finished chapter 5 to 7, I just not sure how to start this chapter. I already had a vague plot as to how it should go but the muses didn't seem to want to cooperate with me. And then this morning, the muses clicked! So now, I hoped this was worth all the wait. If I missed anything, spelling, grammar, characterization, feel free to put it in the reviews.

* * *

Rippled Dimensions

Chapter 8: Yuusuke's Resolve

Written bt Izzu alias honou-no-izumi

o

o

Wataru opened his eyes towards a vast clearing. There was not much in terms of greenery all around him and the area around him did not seemed familiar. _Wonder if the person we're looking for was here_, he thought to himself.

_"Wataru, over here!"_

Wataru looked up towards Kivat the third as he followed the mechanical bat towards another area, where he later found a group of people around what seemed to be, a dig site.

"Ano... can I ask something?" Wataru cautiously approached one of the group leaders of the site as she took a break towards her own tent. The woman turned towards him in surprise.

"Eh? Who—I'm sorry, I haven't expected to see anyone—did you get lost? Are you looking for someone? Oh, sorry for my rudeness... may I help you?"

Wataru let out a sigh of relief. Thank goodness this woman was a Japanese! If she was a foreigner... how on earth would he be able to talk to her?

Wataru shook his head at her slightly. "Ah no, I'm not lost. I just... is there a Godai Yuusuke here?"

Sakurako blinked suddenly. "Eh—I mean, sorry? Don't mind me asking, but how did you know Yuusuke was here? He only happened to be in this country this time by chance, and just arrived at this site this morning. Is it something important?"

Wataru swallowed nervously as he noticed the woman was eyeing at Kivat who had been perching on his shoulder very still. _Did she know?_, he wondered.

"Ah... it's not something bad, umm... someone happened to tell me where he went," he explained, as Sakurako did not seem to believe him. Then again, what else could he say? He cannot exactly say that someone had sent him to this exact location to find this person or that he was from another dimension. Explaining all that... not going to turn out well and he was not that good at mincing words that much...

"So, can I see him? There's something I needed to talk to him about."

Perhaps it should be fine to reveal his purpose to this woman or perhaps not. He did not know how the Kamen Riders of this world worked, especially this one called Kuuga. Then again, he did not know anything about the other Riders that appeared shortly after he arrived at that blank dimension where the lone man—should he be called that—who called himself the Overlord of the Light, had taken him to.

From what he had briefly heard from the others, it seemed that most of them had been told of this disaster by people whom they had thought to have already died. Well, except that man named Tendou Souji and the other person; somehow things had been revealed to them without any supernatural _aid._ The Overlord later told them that he was the one who caused some of those strange phenomena—the reappearance of the ones already gone; whether in spirit or physically—in order to call all of them to stop this destruction. Still, he did not understand why must he instead be the one to approach the last two Kamen Riders that would become his new comrades? This world, was the very world from which the Overlord of the Light came from. Why shouldn't he himself call on them?

Wataru shook his head as he pushed the thought aside. _Could there be some reason why the Overlord cannot do that?_

"You looking for me?"

Wataru started as he turned to find Miss Sakurako returning with another man, presumely the man called Godai Yuusuke. Apparently when he had been so deep in his own thoughts, the woman had gone to find the man he had been looking for. Well, at least he did not have to find the man himself.

Wataru turned towards the man. "Pleased to meet you, I am Kurenai Wataru. Godai-san, may we talk somewhere in private?"

xxx

The expression on Yuusuke's face immediately changed as soon as Wataru finished explaining.

"No. Even if the world was destroyed, I will not become Kuuga ever again!" Wataru blinked, he had not expected the man to have reacted like this. Unlike the new comrades that he had briefly met, none of them had reacted strong against this like this person did. Even if some of them had been living peacefully after a while before this, none of them had hesitated to fight again in order to protect the ones important to them. So why this one...

"Godai-san, I don't understand. Why not? This disaster would not affect just this world but many others—the people that are living in those worlds, as well as this one; all of them will die if we did not stop this. Then why don't you want—?"

"Then why should you try to stop it? If the worlds were meant to be destroyed so let it be. Why should you be the ones to stop it?" Wataru started to frown as Godai's expressions had changed to that of sorrow. "I had enough of that life already, I've had it with fighting alone by myself as other people regarded me the same as those things—creatures that I've been fighting against. I've had it with people trying to justify what is right or wrong, of who should be wielding those powers that could either be good or bad. I've had it with the life of killing or be killed. I wanted to live my life in peace now, I don't even want to relive that life I used to live as Kuuga."

Yuusuke looked up towards Wataru. "I don't even know if I could still use that power again to turn into Kuuga. Ever since my last battle with Daguva many years ago, I did not try to see if I could still transform into Kuuga. Still, even if that power was still alive inside of me... I would not want to test if it was. My days as Kuuga had long past, I no longer wish to have anything to do with fighting. I hope you could understand that. That life... those painful memories of when I had been Kuuga, of being called the Unidentified Lifeform Number 4; I don't even want to remember all of that."

Wataru was silent for a while. Somehow, despite the circumstances they were facing right now, he begun to understand the man. Were it not just a few months ago that he had thought of changing the past in order to erase his own existence? Even if he did not know what kind of life had Godai Yuusuke had lived through during the time he had been Kuuga, from the man's expression and words; he could sense that his life had not been any different than him... or any of his other comrades. Perhaps that was inevitable, since they had been chosen to live as a Kamen Rider; they could not avoid fighting enemies and facing many obstacles in their lives in order to protect what was important to them. In that sense, even with the dire situation in their hands right now, Wataru could not force Godai Yuusuke to fight again. Wonder if that was why the Overlord of Light had sent him to meet this person. Wataru let out a long sigh.

"Very well then, I'll take my leave. I guess the rest of us would have to make do without Kuuga of this world." Wataru glanced to the sky before turning to Yuusuke. "By the way... have you heard about someone named Agito?"

Yuusuke slowly shook his head. "Not that I remember. Then again I've been travelling a lot these few years... I might have missed reading it on the news. Perhaps you could ask someone about it back at home, I used to have a friend who worked as a detective back in Tokyo. Right now he might still be working as a police officer back in Nagano, who knows. Sakurako seemed to have told me something before in the past. It was around two years after I stopped being Kuuga, she said something else had happened there. Might be related to this Agito you're looking for. But I don't know anything else past that, I rather not dwell on it. Since in the end, whatever trouble happened back then had also ended well."

Wataru nodded as he bowed to take his leave. As a new dimensional gate opened in front of him, he turned towards Yuusuke.

"I don't think that it was wrong for me, and the others to try to save these worlds we came from. If our world, our lives were meant to end as it would be; of course I would not try in vain to stop it when the time comes. But right now, someone was out there trying to create this early end to suit their own purpose. I feel whoever it was, the Higher Being that had given us life in this world, the God who created as all... would have wanted us to use every means to save ourselves. He would not lend a hand, yet providing the means for us to do so; to allow us to protect ourselves and the ones we loved. If that was what I'm supposed to do, what my comrades needs to do; I'd do it. Farewell, Godai Yuusuke-san. Even if you would not be fighting with us, we would also be fighting for your sake. We will also be fighting on your stead, to protect your world as well as ours. Farewell... Kamen Rider Kuuga."

Yuusuke held his breath as he watched Wataru disappeared into nothingness. That was it. This was truly the end. Perhaps that other person, the one who might have succeeded Kuuga after him, would protect this world instead. That was fine with him. Whatever fate that would fall into this world, he would face it regardless. If it should happen, it would. He wished all of them well.

Godai Yuusuke sighed as he turned back towards the direction of the excavation camp. There was no regret, he was fine with this life already.

xxx

Kurenai Wataru looked up towards the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department building in front of him. So it seemed things in this world were not that different than his own. Perhaps it was the same with the rest of the parallel worlds that connected all of them in this universe. Hah, and he had been worrying that he would not be able to fit in. Very well then, from what he had gathered, the policemen in this world actually do interact and worked together with the Kamen Riders in the past. Like Godai-san had said, he might get a clue as to where to find Agito.

Perhaps this journey would not end in vain after all...


	9. Chapter 9: Shouichi, taking over

az: Finally Agito! So next would be the last chapter. I guess it would be a while then, since I probably need to rewrite some of the plot. Look forward to it!

Agito and Kuuga fans~ hopefully I don't disappoint you guys with these two chapters. Even if Odagiri Joe's decision of quitting Kuuga had no relation with anything, at least his character Godai Yuusuke is still in our hearts.

* * *

Rippled Dimensions

Chapter 9: Shouichi, taking over

Written bt Izzu alias honou-no-izumi

o

o

The elder man put down the stacks of reports on the table as he took a break and walked out of his office. Missing persons, unexplained vandals and destructions, strange diseases... it sounded like something that used to happen during his early days as a police officer. And it seemed, these strange events did not just happened in this district, let alone this country. It seemed that the it also happened throughout the worlds—even if most of them had not been publicized widely. He wondered if this was just a coincidence... or that his decision to call back Ozawa Sumiko, the person responsible to the creation of G3 system in the past; as well as the many officers involved then... back to the main headquarters was a being a bit too cautious on his part. It did seem unlikely that those things that once endangered this country to have reappeared again after so long...

"Sorry sir, I'm afraid I could help you about that."

"Please Miss Officer, this is very important! I need to know how to find this person as soon as I can!"

The Chief Head of Investigation, Ichijou Kaoru turned his attention towards the young man who was arguing with the female officer. This was very strange, for some reason he felt there was something intriguing about the young man. He was not that old, not too young... yet he looked slightly frail and seemed to look timid. Yet he could not sense that in this young man as the boy continued pressing persistently over his inquiries. The young man did not sound as if he was looking for any missing person, yet it did look like the young man expected the police to know who it was the young man was looking for!

Ichijou placed a hand on the officer as he motioned for the young man to speak. The female officer looked at him in alarm as she hurriedly apologized.

"I'm sorry, Head Chief. This boy was persistent... and I already told him that we did not know about the one he looked for, I—"

Ichijou waved her concerns away. "It's alright, Officer Tanaka. I'll handle this." He turned towards the young man as he spoke again. "Now, young man... what is it that you want to ask?"

The young man appeared shaken but soon recovered his composure. He took a long breath as he spoke slowly. "Pardon me sir but I would like to ask where I could find the person named Agito. Someone I've just met, Godai Yuusuke told me that I should ask about it here."

Ichijou let out a surprised yelp. "Godai—he did? Wait... you said just now... you're looking for Agito?"

The young man nodded firmly. Suddenly, he wished his instincts over impending disaster never been so accurate...

xxx

"Aah! Why must we come to eat here of all places... Ozawa-san!"

The women hit him on his back as she ushered him towards the restaurant. "It's Chief Ichijou's orders, you want to disobey that? Even if you didn't like the sudden changes in the department, you shouldn't be too quick to judge on it. Besides, I wonder if this had to do with _that_."

The man glanced sideways towards Ozawa as the woman said no more. He shrugged as both of them entered the restaurant.

"Ah! Ozawa-kun, Hikawa-kun... over here!"

Hikawa and Ozawa both hurried towards the table where Chief Ichijou had been sitting, surprising enough he was not waiting for them alone. There was another young man sitting beside him as the elder man ushered them to sit. Ichijou cleared his throat slowly.

"Let me introduce these two to you, Wataru-kun. This is Miss Ozawa Sumiko and this is Officer Hikawa Makoto. Ozawa-kun here had been the one who had created the G3 system on which later Hikawa-kun had been the one using it to fight the Unknowns."

"Eh? What—why?" Hikawa suddenly exclaimed as Ozawa piped out.

"I knew it, there was a reason we were both called here... isn't it Chief?" she said as Hikawa stared at her blankly.

Ichijou nodded. "Yes, indeed. And now I've finally am able to confirm my suspicions."

Wataru suddenly turned towards the older man. "But Ichijou-san, the reason why I came here—"

Ichijou patted his shoulders to calm him down. "Don't fret, young man. I haven't finished. There's still another person I wanted you to meet," he waved for the waiter to come to the table. "Young man, could you ask the Head Chef to come over here, please?"

The waiter looked surprised. "Ah, does the menu did not satisfy you, sir?"

He shook his head. "No, it's not that. There is something I'd like to talk to the Head Chef, it's very important."

The waiter bowed and excused himself. Ichijou turned back towards Wataru as he smiled. "You see, Wataru-kun. There was a reason I've brought you here to meet these two officers. This Head Chef is also the owner of this restaurant, and also the one who _named_ this place." Wataru's eyes brightened immediately as he finally understood what Ichijou wanted to tell him. "Yes, Tsugami Shouichi is Agito... and I believe what you're about to tell him—as well as all of us here—is something that needed our attention very much."

Wataru nodded his head. "Yes, you are right."

Hikawa and Ozawa glanced towards each other as they wondered what dire news they were about to hear after this.

xxx

Shouichi bit his lips as he turned towards Wataru. "And you say, that was why the Overlord sent you here to find me?"

"Yes, he could not tell you this himself since he should not be the one doing anything to influence the events of this world directly. And it was important for you to join me and my comrades since..." Wataru looked down on his hands. "Godai-san won't."

"So you've talked to Godai about this before?" Ichijou asked.

Wataru nodded. "Yes, I did. And I came here after that... to meet Tsugami-san. Though I never expected to meet you myself, Ichijou-san. I've heard a bit about you from Godai-san but I never thought to see you in Tokyo."

Ichijou laughed. "It's because since the incident with Kuuga, I've been moving around as well. A few years ago, I've been promoted to Head Chief over here after some of the old guys retired. Perhaps all of this had happened for some reason." He shrugged as he turned his glance towards Hikawa and Ozawa. Hikawa looked like he had just met his idol.

He sighed. "So you've met Godai... huh?" he asked as Wataru looked at him curious. "I guess then you would have heard how he wanted to erase his memories of Kuuga." He turned towards Wataru again. "Please don't think badly of him, Wataru-kun. Back then, things had been very harsh on him. Fighting the Unidentified Lifeforms—the Grongi—had taken a toll on him, mentally and physically. After seeing a lot of things then, I'm not even surprised if he would even detested Kuuga's powers—even if he had saved a lot of people with it."

Wataru shook his head at him. "Don't worry about that, Ichijou-san. I could understand what you're saying. I used to be in a similar situation with Godai-san so I would not begrudge him for the decision he had taken."

"Who are you?" Shouichi finally spoke as he turned towards Wataru.

Wataru shrugged. "I'm also a Kamen Rider, like you Shouichi-san. I am Kamen Rider Kiva from another parallel world such as here."

"And you're saying that my powers as Agito, as well as others like me in other parallel worlds; are needed to save this world from destruction?"

"Yes."

"Does this have something to do with the many mysterious things that had happened right now in this world?" Ichijou asked as Ozawa and Hikawa turned towards him.

Wataru nodded. "Yes. Takumi-san... and Kenzaki-san had told me something similar had happened to their worlds as well. And I heard that Fangires from my world had even entered their worlds and causing destruction. Whatever had caused this distortion in the parallel worlds had caused creatures from one world and the next to be able to cross between worlds. This was most unnatural."

"Whoever doing this must be up to no good." Shouchi said as Ichijou nodded.

"So that was also why I wanted to have Ozawa and Hikawa-kun hear this." He turned towards Ozawa. "How was the research going?"

Hikawa stared at her as Ozawa explained. "So far so good. Luckily I still have the old G-3 and G-3 mild system intact and I still kept the notes on the G-4 system. I think upgrading the system to enhance G-3's capabilities would be possible to do."

"Good. So Hikawa-kun, this was sudden... but I hoped you won't mind taking out G-3 again to fight. I could consider training new recruits for it, but you've already experienced in using it—"

"Don't worry, Chief! You can count on me!" Hikawa beamed brightly as Wataru turned towards Shouichi.

"What is it?"

Shouichi shrugged. "Don't worry about it. I guess I could arrange for someone to watch over this place. I guess we need to leave soon, eh?"

Half an hour later, the four of them waited outside of The Agito as Tsugami Shouichi walked out of the restaurant to meet up with them. Kivat the third finally came out of Wataru's jacket as he cried out of relief.

"_Ah, finally I'm out!_"

Wataru chuckled. "Let's go, Kivat!"

Kivat immediately opened up a dimensional gate as Wataru pass through it. Hikawa placed a hand on Shouichi's shoulder as he said his farewell.

"Be careful."

"You too." he said before he too walked into the gate. Kivat flew in as well as the gate finally close.

Ichijou sighed. "Now, it's up to us to maintain things from over here."

"Yes!" both Hikawa and Ozawa answered. Hikawa glanced towards the sky.

Yes, it's time for them to fight again.


	10. Chapter 10: Tsukasa's beginning

az: Finally after a very bad headache of trying to think up all the plot twist, I've settled into this plotline. It might be rough a bit in the storyline. I see if there's anything to be fixed in the next revising. There's still another one-shot that I'd be writing, from Tsukasa's side. Paying homage to the original Rider 1, see if you could figure out what that is.

Sorry if some of the voices sound out of character, if I have to rewatch every series I have at hand at the moment this chapter would not finish XD.

Another extra note: While I do not mind taking fic requests, I will only do it if I just happened to have a plotmuse that happened to coincide with with the request. So while I am grateful that some people liked my writing enough to ask it from me, I rather not be receiving it. Thank you.

* * *

Rippled Dimensions

Chapter 10: Tsukasa's beginning

Written by Izzu alias honou-no-izumi

o

o

The situation is getting worse. The Fangires that had been living in the city had become out of control completely. Not even his own presence had been able to subdue them any more. Almost every single Fangire had been affected, regardless whether they were those renegades and rebels; or the obedient Fangires who had agreed with Taiga's new policy of living in peace with the normal humans.

Wataru glanced up towards the sky. It had been night on this side of the world for quite some time already. He wondered if that had been half the reason why many of the Fangires had been greatly affected by this dimensional instability this world and many others had started to face. Time was getting shorter. But at least he and the others had been able to keep this world to continue existing a bit longer.

Wataru was almost glad for until now, he still kept his sanity and not fall like many of the Fangires whom he had no choice but to subdue. He was also glad that nothing had been affecting Taiga as well. Nor did the rest of his Arms Monsters. He wondered if the Kiva powers were somehow protecting them from these changes. Nago-san had also been busy. Megumi-san even insisted to Shima-san to allow her to use IXA's old model in order to help out with the fight.

His mother, Maya, had placed herself in a deep sleep. So far, she had not reawakened yet from her slumber. Wataru hoped that she would stay like that for now, at least until they managed to restore this world's order to normal. It would break his heart and his brother's, if they had to kill their own mother in order to protect everyone. His mother would not have forgiven herself either if she had destroyed the very thing that his father has held precious. The very thing his mother had grown to treasure, because of her love towards his father.

Because of that, Wataru had been working himself hard. He would not let this world to be destroyed. The others would also not allow their worlds to be destroyed either. If he had to join hands with them in order to protect everyone, he would gladly do it. Even if it meant gambling with his own life... and the lives of his other comrades.

He had not told his brother and the others the whole truth after all. He had kept it to himself that all of these chaos had been caused by a ripple in dimensions because of a certain group trying to connect all of the worlds into one. He never told any of them about this slow destruction was another sign that the worlds were getting even closer to each other for them to start merging.

The only time he had been talking about this openly aside from the time he saw his father's spirit, had been when all of them had met for the first time. It was then when he had found out who was it that had instigated their unlikely encounters, but since then he and the others had been able to move between and out of their own dimensions to oversee the situation.

He would never forget that first meeting. Even when they had never known each other before, he had felt a certain bond between each and every one of them. They were all the same, if one can set aside the obvious differences.

All of them had their reasons to fight. All of them had people that they wanted to protect. People whom they loved and cherished and vowed to keep safe.

When it came down to it, they were all the same.

All of them were Kamen Riders.

xxx

All of them had been standing on the plains. Facing each other. Neither of them have been wearing their armours. At that moment, the only thing that the eight of them had managed to do was staring at each other.

Some of them had been wearing their Rider belts. A young man, who had called himself Sakurai Yuuto; had told him that he would stand in for his comrade for now. Until then he would fight alongside the seven of them, before his comrade would join them. Sakurai had been holding a card on his hand. He said that it was his ticket back to his own time and world. But right now, he could not go back to that world without straying aimlessly in the streams of time. Wataru had felt a bit for him at that time, he wondered how he would fare had he faced a similar predicament.

The aloof one had called himself _The Man who walked the heavens, the one to rule everything_. It had sounded a bit conceited to him but Tendou Souji turned out to be a decent person. The title he had given himself turned out to be a kind of his motto; that he would stand to be better than his adversaries and enemies, allowing him to protect the ones he had called family... and dear friends. Tendou had been holding something that had looked like a red mechanical beetle. He had called it his zecter.

Wataru saw another man who looked much older than most of them and more mature; he did not seem so alarmed over the situation they're in despite the strangeness of the moment. He had been holding some sort of a fancy tuning fork on his hand. He was mostly quiet, talking only when he had anything he wanted to talk. He introduced himself as Hibiki. Wataru doubted that it was his real name but he did not press further. Hibiki-san seemed to be very calm, perhaps he had trained himself to be able to remain calm and composed when faced with any kinds of situation. Perhaps he could ask for his opinions about what they should do.

Kenzaki-san seemed a bit agitated. Wataru had asked him earlier about what had bothered him, but he did not seem to want to talk much about it. From the way he had heard Kido-san told him later, it sounded like Kenzaki's arrival to their 'meeting place' was a bit _unannounced._ Kido said he literally fell out of a hole. Whoever was it that sent Kenzaki here must have been the type to just do something without explaining the details.

Wataru turned towards Inui Takumi. Among the eight of them, he found the man to be intriguing. Inui used to be a normal human... who later was reborn into an Orphenoch due to a terrible accident. Even if Inui's circumstances were a bit different from him, who was born from a human and Fangire; Wataru felt he could get along with this man. He could recall their earlier conversation when they had initially met. Inui had been troubled when the Overlord had explained the situation briefly. He was worried that once the order of the world had been set back right again, he would never meet again his old friend whom he used to think had been dead before. Wataru thought about his father at that time, so he could understand his feelings.

Well, he might be assuming things so soon... but it seemed it might not be so bad, having all of these men as his comrades.

Wataru glanced back towards Shouichi-san, as the man he had been sent to find in the world of Kuuga and Agito was talking softly to Overlord of Light. So they did know each other! Although it alarmed him a bit before, when Shouichi exclaimed aloud to reassure himself that the man was indeed the Overlord of Light and not of Darkness. It would be strange if all of them who were the protectors of their own worlds to be guided by someone like that. Still, he was relieved to find that the Overlord had not expected him to drag Kuuga along as he had thought at first. Wataru knew he would feel uncomfortable if he had to do it anyway, he wanted to respect Godai-san's wish to not fight anymore.

Everyone suddenly went quiet as the Overlord turned his attention towards all of them. Wataru held his breath, finally everything would be explained. About what was happening to all of their worlds and what was it that all of them needed to do in order to protect it.

In the end, things did not appear as they seemed to be.

xxx

_"Strange... I could never imagine there would be someone who would have such power that could change so many lives..."_

_"You think so?" Kenzaki spoke aloud, as Inui turned his glance towards the man. "You're saying in your world there was no one you've met who would have had any such powers that could affect many people?"_

_Inui shrugged. "Not like this. I just can't imagine this guy to have some kind of power—once it was misused—would affect the universe so greatly."_

_"Troublesome... isn't it? Then again I came from a world where a slight change in the past could change so much of the future, something like this is sli—ghtly not surprising."_

_A number of them gave Sakurai a look as Sakurai ignored them. Wataru smiled weakly at him. Come to think... he used to have met Sakurai's friend, Nogami... wasn't it? It was still a brief encounter though. Suddenly now he was curious to know about Sakurai's world. The world where Kamen Rider Den-O existed._

_"Ssh." Tendou suddenly urged all of them to be silent as suddenly the city square several kilometres in front of them, came into life as hundreds of civilians scattered around in fear. A number of strange creatures appeared as they went around attacking people at random. He frowned. "It seemed we're right on track. Decade should be amongst them."_

_"Right. So we'll do as we had planned. The five of you would take on those other kaijin and separate them from Decade as much as possible. The four of us would handle Decade." Shouichi immediately spoke up as Tendou nodded to him._

_Kenzaki stepped up to Shouichi. "Decade's only one person, do we need the four of us to tackle him? I could handle some of those creatures just as easily—"_

_"No, Kenzaki-san. Remember, we weren't supposed to kill Decade in this mission. The Overlord said—"_

_Wataru took the cue from Kido as he spoke, "The Overlord said Decade's power is needed in order to restore everything to its original state."_

_"Very well, then," said Kenzaki as the eight of them faced each other. They briefly exchange words with each other before parted with their own separate missions._

xxx

_A great explosion shattered the land as Decade crashed into a building and his armour cancelled out. The young man looked up towards them as Wataru, Kenzaki, Shouichi and Kido surrounded him._

_"What did you want now? I'm already defeated, finish me off then!"_

_Shouichi shook his head. "No. The four of us are not here to kill you. All of us needed your power. You're the only one who could set things right with everything that happen in these parallel universes."_

_"Don't tell me that this is what you yourself had wanted to do! Don't you have anyone close to you? Do you want them to die without knowing anything?" Kido asked aggressively as slowly the expression on the young man's face started to change._

_"I..." The young man started to frown as if started to remember something, "What... have I done?" He glanced down towards himself before noticing the pink camera slung over his chest. He gently ran his hand over it as he seemed to have remembered something._

_"Sayo?" Wataru and the others could hear the young man whisper the name softly before picking himself up from the ground._

_"But what should I do? What can I do to set things right?" asked the young man again as Kenzaki spoke._

_"You need to destroy all of the other Kamen Riders that you have caused to come into existence, as the result of the parallel worlds that you have unknowingly created when you had allowed those evil ones to cross between worlds."_

_The young man immediately paled. "What did you mean... destroy? Isn't that the same as what DaiShocker had made me do? Then why did all of you come here to stop me and telling this to me?"_

_Shouichi shook his head at him. "No. What we wanted you to do is not the same. Kadoya Tsukasa-kun, you have a strange power living inside of you. You have the ability to cross between different worlds and you also have the power to change their order."_

_"I know this was hard to take in but I've known people who had that kind of ability like you, even though those powers were not as great as yours." Kido suddenly spoke. "I know this might sound a bit radical, but sometimes in order to undo something in order to recreate it; something of equal value needed to be sacrificed."_

_Wataru nodded to himself as the young man turned to him. "Yes, creation and destruction... those two things cannot be separated. In order to restore things as it used to be, you needed to destroy it before you could recreate it."_

_The young man shook his head. "You're all mad! What bullshit are you telling me, and how did you know my name?" Tsukasa asked as he turned towards Shouichi. "Why are you telling me this—how did you even know if I have that kind of power that you said I had? How did you even know that destroying everything would fix it all?"_

_"Because you are Decade!" Shouichi suddenly raised his voice, before his expression softened. "I know this was hard to believe at first but I'm sure one day you will be able to find the answer you're looking for. Tsukasa-kun, without realising it you have affected our existence simply by crossing into our worlds. Because of your ability to cross dimensions, you've unknowingly tied the worlds' fate with its Riders. It was unfortunate that the evil ones that made up that DaiShocker organization had found out about your powers and used it for their own purposes."_

_Wataru sighed. "It was unfortunate for things to become like this, but the fact remained that your powers had been the one responsible for these changes and your powers as well that could set it back to what it used to be."_

_"Right now, because of the existences of the new parallel worlds... the order of everything had been unbalanced. The worlds are gradually merging into one." Kenzaki said bitterly. "And who did you think is the one at fault?" _

_Tsukasa bit his lips. His head started to ache, trying to make sense of everything he had just been told. "Then what did you want me to do?" he cried out as some of the DaiShocker generals had arrived to retrieve him._

_Kenzaki snorted at him. "Didn't we just tell you what that was?" he said before putting on his Blade Rouser and transformed._

_Kido grinned as he walked towards a broken glass pane before transforming into Ryuki to fight off the incoming enemies. "Don't worry about us, we could handle this by ourselves!" he said, just as Kabuto appeared to fight the ones heading towards them._

_"Go now," said Shouichi as Wataru nodded to Tsukasa._

_"I'll be seeing you again, when the time comes."_

_The two Riders immediately joined their comrades to tackle the enemies as Tsukasa watched them in disbelief. It seemed so unbelievable, to suddenly be confronted by these men and be entrusted with something important._

_Tsukasa looked down as he picked up his Decadriver and Ride Booker from the ground. Strange how things had come to this point without him realising it. Tsukasa looked back towards all of the Riders before him as he finally turned around to make his escape._

_Noticing his departure, Kiva paused as he impaled a Rhino kaijin onto the ground with his Zanbat sword. A small batlike creature flew to his side as he spoke softly to her. "Go now, Kivaala. You must not forget your own mission."_

_The little one giggled before flying in small circles. "Of course, I'll do everything that I could do to help. Finally there would be a purpose to my own existence!" said Kivaala before giggling softly._

_"You take care out there, don't overestimate your own ability. Unlike father and me, you're very small. Any carelessness you'll—"_

_Kivaala flew lower as it met Kivat the Third's line of view. "I'll certainly remember that, big brother. I'll take care of myself well, you'll be sure of that!"_

_Wataru snorted as Kivaala flew up towards him again. "You can leave everything to me, Wataru-sama. I'll find the person who was meant for me and help everyone to ensure this mission will succeed. You can count on me!"_

_He nodded to her as Kivaala opened a gateway to allow her to cross into another world and left. _

_Now, the pieces had started to move... _

xxx

The world he had entered this time was a world that he did not recognize. It was not his world nor had it been any of the worlds his eight comrades had came from. Wataru frowned. Why have he been taken suddenly towards this place? This must be a sign. Would the true beginning to the destruction of the worlds begin now?

Another dimensional wall had appeared not far from where he was standing. And night fell again. A young man appeared to be slamming his fist on it, crying for the girl on the other side of the _wall_ in alarm.

"Natsumikan! Natsumikan!" The young man cried.

Immediately after hearing his voice, Wataru recognized the owner. He took a closer step towards him as a Makamou passed through the wall into this side of this world. Wataru just watched the creature pass by before it disappeared on its own. He turned around towards Kadoya Tsukasa as the young man gasped in surprise. Wataru smiled.

"Decade... this would be the day." _Of the destruction of the worlds._

Wataru walked slowly towards him as Tsukasa gave him a defiant look.

"You! Who are you?" he cried as Wataru smiled, lifting his hand to point towards the dark skies.

Tsukasa stared at him confused, before looking up towards the sky. The single moon that had been adorning the night sky, suddenly changed into a seemingly small Earth that expanded into a ring of nine different Earths; each having slightly different surface appearances as if they were all nine separate planets. The nine planets then started to _fall_ onto the world they were on as one of the Earths crashed into this one.

Wataru blinked as he was back in his own world, looking up towards the other world; still visible to him as Kadoya Tsukasa shouted at him.

"Hey! That was dangerous!"

Wataru continued walking on the empty flyover as he kept looking upwards towards Tsukasa.

"Where are your buckle and cards?"

"It's been a policy for me not to use a credit card!"

Wataru suddenly had an urge to want to laugh at him. So it seemed the rumours that Decade had lost his memories had been true.

"To save the world... your power is needed," said Wataru as the dimensions between them started to shift again. The world had returned to normal as the apparition of the other dimension had disappeared. Wataru walked away, satisfied that he had finally started the ball running before returning towards Castle Doran to continue observing the lad.

xxx

"What's going on? This power... will not last!" gasped Tsukasa as he flipped through all of the cards on his hands.

Wataru smirked. It seemed he still needed to point this person towards his proper direction. He started walking closer to the mirror he had used to monitor Tsukasa's movements as he spoke.

"That's because... in the past you've lost them all."

He watched as Tsukasa and the other girl ducked from an approaching Makamou before looking away to see the different creatures climbed a building and attacking each other. The ruckus caused by the various Makamou made the building instable as it collapsed. The death of the many Makamou dying at the same time, brought forth a chain of reactions leading towards a great explosion as the flames threatened to consume that world. Wataru immediately summoned his ability that he had somehow gained during these dimensional rifts to stop the time of that other world as he stepped into the mirror.

The feeling of walking into the Mirror World had been strange. He could not believe these phenomena had been happening in Shinji's world for quite some time. Mirror World certainly had a different feel to it. But then again, this was the first time he himself had been using this method to cross onto another different dimension. Wataru stepped out in front of the flames as if it had been mere decorations before staring back towards Tsukasa.

Tsukasa looked at him bemused before recognizing him.

"You!"

"There's still some time," said Wataru as he continued walking.

Tsukasa looked at him defiantly before approaching him closer.

"You... said that I could save the world, right?"

"Yes." said Wataru as he snapped his fingers aloud. Everything became dark as Tsukasa looked up to see many different _Earths_ hovering all around him.

"Isn't this a wonderful view? So did you remember anything yet?" Wataru spoke again as Tsukasa turned towards him.

"No. Just how to fight. What are those?" Tsukasa cocked his head towards the Earths. "They looked like Earth."

"Yes. It _is_ the Earth."

Tsukasa seemed surprised as he looked back towards the Earths.

"W-why did the Earths-?"

Wataru turned his attention towards him.

"In the nine worlds, nine Kamen Riders had been born. They were independent and had different, separate stories. But now the stories are merging, that's why the worlds are becoming one. Eventually, all of the worlds would be destroyed."

"Decade, you must travel to those nine worlds. That is the only way, to save the world."

Tsukasa looked down towards his cards before facing him again.

"Why me?"

"You are the one who will destroy all of the Kamen Riders. Creation cannot exist without the destruction of everything first. Unfortunately."

Wataru closed his eyes in deep thought. When he had opened his eyes again, he was back in Castle Doran... staring towards the seeing mirror to see Tsukasa and Natsumi Hikari looking around, clueless.

"Until your journey ends, my comrades and I will keep this world alive a bit longer." Wataru spoke again, before waving his hand over the tall mirror as the images from the other world started to fade. The seeing mirror looked just like any other mirrors now.

This would be all that he could do for now. Decade needed to recover his memories by himself in order for everything to start moving into action. Neither of them would interfere. For now, the eight of them would just observe him from afar. Should anything go not in the way they were supposed to be, only then the eight of them would start to take actions.

Hopefully, the Destroyer of Kamen Riders would not disappoint them.


End file.
